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PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE— CALIFORNIA. 


SPEECH 


HON.  A.  W.  VENABLE,  OF  N,  CAROLINA, 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  FEBRUARY  19,  1650, 

In  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  on  the  Resolution  referring  the 
President's  Message  to  the  appropriate  Standing  Committees. 


Mr.  VENABLE  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  to  me 
lhat  the  rule,  which  necessity  has  compelled  us  to 
adopt  as  to  the  time  allotted  to  each  speaker,  will 
prevent  me  from  the  full  discussion  of  the  subject 
before  us.  I  shall,  however,  avail  myself  of  the 
privilege  of  publishing  to  the  country  those  re- 
marks, which  I  shall  be 'prevented  from  deliver- 
ing. 

The  character  of  the  discussion,  and  particu- 
larly the  proceedings  of  yesterday,  have  developed 
many  and  importantvconsiderations,  which  ou°-ht 
to  be  fully  impressed  on  the  public  mind.  We 
hear  gentlemen  declaring,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
measures  in  progress  must  produce  disastrous  con- 
sequences, and  making  the  strongest  appeals  for 
forbearance;  whilst  on  the  other,  there  is  a  cool 
annunciation  that  whatever  may  be  the  result, 
these  measures  must  be  consummated.  The  issue 
must  be  made  up,  and  at  whatever  cost,  the 
strength  of  the  antagonistic  parties  must  be  tried. 
I  am  satisfied  that  things  are  tending  in  this  direc- 
tion, and  that  the  most  desirable  event  which  can 
happen,  is  a  final  adjustment,  one  way  or  the 
other,  of  the  great  issue  which  divides  us. 

I  like  frankness  and  candor.     I  abhor  conceal- 
ment and  indirection.     I  must,  at  least,  respect  the 
boldness  of  the  open  assailant  of  my  rights,  when 
compared  with  the  covert  intriguer,  who  smiles 
to  conciliate  that  his  unjust  purpose  may  be  more  ef- 
fectually accomplished.  It  was  for  that  reason  that  I 
heard  without  excitement  the  declaration  of  thegen- 
tleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Root]  on  Friday  last,  that 
Heaven  had  decreed  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and 
warned  gentlemen  of  the  South  lest  they  should 
hurry  the  execution  of  that  decree.     Neither  was 
1  astonished  to  hear  the  gentleman  from   Massa- 
chusetts [Mr.  Mann]  announce  that  the  institution 
must  fall.     After  taxing  his  rich  imagination  to 
describe  the  horrors  of  the  civil  war  which  would 
follow  disunion— after  piling  up  the  agony,  midst 
Clouds  and  dust  and  smoke  and  darkness,  with 
scenes  of  blood  and  carnage— distressing  our' sym- 
pathies with  all  the  horrors  of  civil  and  servile  war 
f;ill  going  on  to  draw  from  the  resources  of  a 
rich  in  such  pictures,  and  prolific  in  such 
s,  my  friend  from  Alabama  [Mr.  BowdonI 
id  his  progress  for  a  moment,  by  asking  him 
er  he  would  consent  to  avoid  all  these  tre- 
>us  consequences  by  assigning  some  portion 
or  tne^ubhc  domain  to  southern  slaveholders,  that 
tney  mivht  emigrate  to  it, ana  enjoy  their  property: 
fte  promptly  repiied  that  no  such  concession  could 
De  made.    Tp  him  the  horrors  of  civil  discord,  the  !. 


calamities  of  internecine  war,  the  thrilling  terrors 
of  fraternal  and  deadly  conflict,  were  more  desi- 
rable than    the  relaxation  of  a  policy   in  which 
his  heart  and  feelings  are  absorbed.     It  was  some- 
what  amusing,    however,    to    see    him 'descend 
from   his  lofty  soaring  in   those  regions  of  ima- 
gination to   warn  us,  as  an   inducement  to  sub- 
mission,   of    the    practical    evil    in   the    way   of 
negro    stealing    to   which    we    should    be    sub'- 
jected.      The  extended  sea-coast,  our  bays  and 
rivers,  and   the  succession   of  dark   nights,  were 
facilites  with  which  he  seemed  familiar  in  thought; 
and  he  concluded,  perhaps  justly,  that  if  the  re- 
straints of  the  Constitution  were  now  some  little 
obstruction  to  the  indulgence  of  the  kidnapping 
propensity  of  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  that  those 
restrainsts  being  removed,  our  whole  slave  popula- 
tion would  be  abducted.     That  the  gentleman  has 
no  peculiar   horror   of  that  crime,    was  signally 
shown  in  his  zeal  in  defending  (for  the  mere  love 
of  justice   undoubtedly)  those  daring  plunderers 
who  robbed  the  people  of  this  District,  a  short  time 
since,  of  near  a  hundred  slaves  in  a  single  night. 
I  can  assure  him  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
our  danger  from  this  species  of  daring  crime  will 
be  removed,  by  the  fact  that  unless  a  market  for 
the  kidnapped  negroes  could  be  found  we  have  no. 
fear  that  New  England   capital,  or  New  England 
labor,  would  be  employed  in  that  enterprise.     The 
first  impulses  of  fanatical  or  unprincipled  feeling 
would  abate  before  the  want  of  pecuniary  profit 
which   the   employment   would    yield.     We  are 
willing  to  believe  that  the  descendants  of  those 
who  filled   their  purses   by  seizing  the  African  on 
his  native  shore  and   selling   him  into  bondage, 
might,  too,  for  a  consideration,  be  induced  to  open 
a  trade  in  the  descendants  of  those  whose  fathers 
|  their  fathers  made  slaves;  and  I  would  readily  be- 
lieve that  those  whose  moral  sense  is  so  paralyzed 
as  to  see  no  crime  in  negro  stealing,  might  easily 
be  persuaded  that  there  would  be  less  objection  ta 
the  business  if  it  could  be  rendered   profitable. 
They  have  not  forgotten  the  convenient  morality 
which —  £  •  J 

"Oomp-unrfs  for  sin<?  they  are  inclind  to, 
By  damning  those  they  have  no  mind  to." 
I  can  assure  him  that  we  have  not  forgotten 
vast  numbers  of  charming   and   interes~tin°-'  if 
away  negroes  at  New  Bedford,  who,  as  his  forr.rci 
colleague  (Mr.  Palfrey)  remarked   with  manifest 
exultation,  had  paid   for  themselves  with    their 
heels.     We  are    not  insensible  to   the  fraternal 
kindness  with   which  those  northern  Anacharsis* 
Klootz  orators  of  the  human  race  regard  us  of 


:n  the 

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pf<£<?  87 


the  South.  Nothing  can  equal  the  indifference 
with  which  we  regard  such  predictions  of  danger, 
except  our  detestation  of  the  means  employed  to 
bring  on  the  trouble,  and  our  abhorrence  of  the 
mock  sanctity  of  those  who  would  be  the  agents 
in  the  work.  Sir,  there  is  no  more  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  senility,  the  decay  of  a  people, 
than  the  reign  of  cant.  No  people  have  ever 
recovered  from  its  effects,  and  never  can.  Noth- 
ing but  cant  could  have  suggested  the  atiocities 
with  which  the  gentleman's  speech  abounded. 
Let  him  blush  when  he  speaks  of  the  sins  and 
crimes  of  any  people  on  earth.  Crime  and  sickly 
mental  culture  have  kept  pace  in  his  section. 
No  southern  calendar  of  crime  can  afford  such 
cases  as  the  Salem  murders  of  some  years  since, 
or  the  recent  horrors  of  the  Parkman  assassin- 
ation by  a  professor  of  the  model  University  of 
New  England.  If  we  add  to  this  the  cool  assu- 
rance with  which  the  gentleman  from  Indiana 
[Mr.  Fitch]  designated  a  portion  of  the  southern 
members  as  madmen,  we  are  constrained  to  admit 
the  force  of  the  maxim  quoted  by  himself,  "  Whom 
the  gods  intend  to  destroy  they  first  make  mad." 
The  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Root]  stated  his 
points  with  clearness  and  frankness,  and  with 
boldness  declared  that  no  compromise  could  be 
made  upon  the  question  of  the  exclusion  of  sla- 
very from  the  Territories' — an  issue  in  which  we 
join,  and  shall  at  least  have  the  satisfaction  of 
understanding  each  other.  On  some  future  occa- 
sion, when  this  question  shall  come  up  more  prac- 
tically in  relation  to  California  and  New  Mexico, 
1  intend  to  reply  to  his  remarks. 

I  turn,  with  gratification,  to  my  friend  and  col- 
league, [Mr.  Clingman,]  who  some  time  since 
addressed ,  the  committee  in  a  manner  which 
afforded  me  high  pleasure.  I  avail  myself  of  this, 
the  first  occasion,  to  congratulate  the  country 
that  the  time  has  arrived  when  party  ties  yield  to 
the  call  of  our  country  on  a  great  occasion,  and 
when  the  voice  of  patriotism  can  be  heard  above 
the  clamor  excited  by  partisan  zeal.  I  hail  him 
as  a  bold  and  efficient  champion  of  our  rights,  and 
most  gladly  will  I  cooperate  with  him,  or  any 
other  man  who  will,  with  an  honest  purpose,  take 
hold  of  this  momentous  question,  to  adjust  it 
properly  and  according  to  the  guarantees  of  the 
Constitution. 

This  occasion,  sir,  is  peculiarly  suitable  for  the 
consideration  of  the  state  in  which  the  Union  ac- 
tually is.  We  are  in  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union  as  disclosed  by  the 
President's  message.  In  that  communication  he 
speaks  strongly  of  his  purpose,  as  well  as  his  duty, 
to  preserve  the  union  of  the  Slates  composing  this 
Republic.  He  uses  strong  expressions  when 
speaking  of  its  value — of  the  calamity  which 
would  supervene  upon  its  dissolution  as  the  great- 
est which  could  befall  us.  He  assures  us  of  his 
determination  to  "stand  bjtit,  and  maintain  it  in 
its  integrity  to  the  full  extent  of  the  obligations 
imposed,  and  the  power  conferred  by  the  Consti- 
tution."    I  suppose  that  the  President  apprehends 

me  danger  of  this  calamity,  or  else  this  declara- 

bn  is  uncalled  for,  and  believes  that  this  intima- 

■t  tion  of  his  purpose  will  in  some  measure  tend  to 

'  avert  it.     If  he  intends  to  awe  those  whose  deeds  of 

jvrong  and  aggression  awaken  a  spirit  of  resistance, 

w  perhaps   it  was  well-timed;  but  the  language  of 

.menace  or  rebuke  seems  to  be  ia  bad  taste  when 


addressed  to  any  portion  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people.  I  presume  that  it  is  the  purpose  of 
every  member  here  to  stand  by  the  Constitution 
which  he  has  sworn  to  support — that  the  obliga- 
tion of  an  oath  is  equally  sacred  to  the  members 
of  this  House  and  the  Chief  Executive  of  this 
Republic;  and  that  all  must  long  since  have  been 
convinced  that  the  tie  which  binds  us  is  purely  a 
moral  obligation — precluding  the  supposition  that 
our  existence  as  a  Confederacy  either  originated  in 
force  or  can  be  preserved  by  violence.  The  States 
and  the  people  of  the  States  must  have  sunk  de- 
plorably from  the  position  occupied  originally  by 
them  when  they  can  be  brought  to  tremble  or  to 
yield  to  the  power  which  they  themselves  created, 
or  to  fear  its  exercise  in  controlling  their  action. 
To  deliberate  on  all  the  circumstances  which  sur- 
round us,  and  to  determine  as  to  the  rights  of  those 
whose  interests  are  committed  to  our  care,  belong 
to  us;  and  whilst  we  shall  ever  listen  respectfully 
to  the  messages  of  the  Executive  in  reference  to 
those  subjects  on  which  we  are  to  legislate,  we 
should  never  forget  our  own  high  duties  as  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  or  hesitate  to  dis- 
charge them  irrespective  of  the  opinions  or  con- 
clusions of  other  departments  of  the  Government. 

It  is  proper,  from  the  tone  of  the  messsge,  that 
we  assume  that  the  Union  is  in  danger;  although 
there  is  in  that  document,*  remarkable  obscurity 
as  to  the  causes  "of  that  danger,  or  the  means  of 
averting  it.  It  is  our  duty  to  make  faithful  inqui- 
ry concerning  this  matter — to  ascertain  whether 
this  evil  is  really  to  be  apprehended;  and  if  men- 
aced by  so  great  a  calamity,  to  point  out  the 
individuals  and  the  measures  which  are  active  in 
producing  it.  It  is  time  for  statesmen  to  cease  to 
speak  in  mysterious  terms,  or  to  bandy  epithets  as 
applicable  to  classes  or  individuals.  It  is  worse 
than  useless  to  abandon  argument,  and  resort  to 
denunciation;  to  speak  of  ultra  men,  either  North 
or  South,  as  the  cause  of  that  agitation  which 
now  pervades  the  Republic.  Our  history  for  the 
last  twenty  years  instructs  us — passing  events  com- 
pel us  to  feel  that  some  great  disturbing  cause  has 
marred  the  harmony  and  destroyed  the  tranquillity 
of  the  great  people  represented  in  this  Hall.  We 
cannot  avoid  the  conviction,  that  unless  that  dis- 
turbing cause  is  removed,  it  is  impossible  for  the 
Government  to  extend  its  existence,  without  such 
internal  convulsions  as  must  sever  the  tie  which 
unites  the  States  of  this  confederacy.  It  is  worse 
than  folly  even  to  think  of  force  as  an  element  in 
any  policy  designed  to  perpetuate  the  Union.  It 
Ls  madness  to  rely  on  any  other  than  a  sense  of 
equal  justice,  as  the  foundation  of  that  confidence 
upon  which  that  Union  is  founded,  and  which 
supplies  its  vitality.  We  must  approach  this 
subject  with  candor.  We  must,  if  we  hope  to  ar- 
rive at  any  safe  conclusion,  be  willing  to  investi- 
gate faithfully,  and  decide  impartially,  on  all  com- 
plaints which  come  before  us.  Nothing  but  a 
conviction  that  full  justice  has  been  done,  can  re- 
concile the  parties  who  have  submitted  their  rights 
to  our  decision. 

With  a  hope  that  this  confidence  is  not  alto- 
gether overthrown,  and  that  justice  may  ydt  be 
done,  I  submit  some  considerations  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  state  of  this  Union — considerations 
drawn  as  well  from  our  past  history  as  fram  events 
'  now  in  progress — to  examine  into  the  causes  of 
agitation  and  dissatisfaction,  and  show  who  are 


rs  fvic 


the  agitators  and  disturbers — to  expose  the  real 
danger  to  the  Union,  and  show  who  are  the  dis- 
unionists — to  strip  history  of  fiction,  and  pass- 
ing events  of  all  false  coloring,  and  to  hold  up 
before  the  American  people  the  danger  and  the 
remedy. 

And  here,  sir,  I  must  remark,  that  much  of  the 
evil  which  besets  us  is  referable  to  mere  party  or- 
ganization; although  I  am  admonished  that  its  aid 
has  been  invoked  to  avert  coming  troubles.  We 
have  been  often  reminded  by  the  press  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  two 
great  national  parties,  particularly  the  Democratic, 
as  a  panacea  for  the  disease  which  preys  upon  the 
heart  of  this  Republic  Like  the  inebriate,  who 
follows  the  blind  impulse  of  his  appetite,  and  re- 
sorts to  the  bottle  as  a  remedy  for  his  disease,  or 
the  confirmed  opium-eater,  who  finds  the  narcotic 
necessary  to  allay  the  nervous  turmoil  which  his 
vicious  habit  has  produced — it  is  an  appeal  to  an 
exciting  cause  to  counteract  its  effects;  to  a 
blind  impulse,  or  an  unprincipled  intrigue,  to  lead 

%to  the  discovery  of  truth  and  the  remedy  for  in- 
justice. By  party  influence  wrongs  often  go  un- 
redressed, and  truth  is  long  -perverted  and  dis- 
armed. It  is  a  fearful  thing  when  that  power 
becomes  so  concentrated  as  to  control  the  intel- 
lects of  the  masses  and  place  their  resistless  in- 
fluence in  the  hands  of  weak  or  unscrupulous 
men.  The  disturbing  energy  is  felt  long  after  the 
causes  have  ceased  to  be  active.  The  ocean, 
roused  by  the  tempest,  heaves  with  destructive 
fury  after  the  winds  have  subsided.  The  heav- 
ens are  calm,  but  the  waves  still  rise  mountain 
high,  and  did  not  memory  fix  the  cause,  phi- 
losophy would  be  at  a  loss  to  determine  it. 
The  ship  which  outrides  the  storm,  because  the 
very  winds  which  lashed  the  ocean  into  fury,  en- 
abled the  mariner  to  trim  his  vessel  and  keep  be- 
fore it,  has  been  wrecked  in  the  succeeding  calm 
by  the  ground-swell,  for  there  was  no  breeze  to 
waft  it  from  the  dangerous  shore.  The  calamities 
and  the  overthrow  of  governments  are  unskillfully 
referred  to  those  causes  which  at  first  view  seem 
proximate  and  operative.  They  are  themselves 
the  result  of  previous  evils — evils  which,  either 
from  a  want  of  skill  or  honesty  in  the  Adminis- 
tration, have  become  a  part  of  the  system  and  pro- 
duce its  destruction.  It  is  a  great  mistake  that 
the  ruin  of  a  people,  or  the  overthrow  of  a  gov- 
ernment, is  the  mere  result  of  action  in  legislative 
halls,  or  a  victory  on  the  battle-field. 

Unwise  and  unjust  legislation  are  the  effects,  and 
not  the  cause.  A  people  must  be  hopelessly  ig- 
norant who  will  fail  to  correct  the  first,  or  deplo- 
rably depraved  who  would  tolerate  the  last.  It  is 
the  last  act  of  oppression  which  produces  revolu- 
tion— the  insufferable  pressure  of  distress  which 
arrays  men  iH  rebellion.  But  the  sanguinary  con- 
flict which  closes  the  existence  of  a  government, 

'  has  been  caused  by  aggressions  and  injuries  accu- 
mulating and  exasperating,  until  the  existing  state 
of  things  is  as  full  of  actual  evil  as  any  which 
even  the  battle-field  can  bring.  Nothing  but  great 
evils  ever  break  up  governments;  for  nothing  is  so 
much  desired  by  the  masses  as  tranquillity  and  re- 
pose. Ambitious  rulers,  or  the  hope  of  plunder, 
may  make  external  wars;  but  domestic  disorgan- 
ization is  produced  only  by  a  deep  sense  of  injus- 
tice— a  feeling  which  causes  incurable  alienation 
between  the  government  and  the  people.     Thus 


in  every  government  where  the  people  constitute 
an  important  element  in  the  administration,  op- 
pression must  have  become  terrific  before  revolu- 
tion has  been  adopted  as  a  remedy.  The  fierce 
and  successful  uprising  of  the  people  against  the 
First  Charles  and  the  Second  James  were  but 
manifestations  of  a  deep  discontent  arising  from 
long  mal-administration.  No  one  would  respect 
the  sagacity  of  the  statesman  who  should  charge 
the  revolution  under  Cromwell  to  the  ultraism  of 
those  who  resisted  the  collection  of  ship-money, 
or  the  enormities  of  the  Star  Chamber.  We  could 
find  no  person  at  this  day  who  would  denounce  as 
disorganizers  those  who  drove  off  James,  snatched 
the  ermine  from  Jeffries,  and  hailed  the  Prince  of 
Orange  as  a  deliverer.  No  statesman,  no  discreet 
reader  of  history,  can  refer  these  events  to  imme- 
diate acts  of  oppression.  Patience  was  exhausted 
by  a  long-continued  course  of  injustice;  hope  of 
redress  was  extinguished,  and  the  principle  of 
resistance  called  into  high  activity,  which  had 
before  that  time  been  manifested  only  by  remon- 
strance and  complaint. 

Sir,  the  principle  of  loyalty  to  the  government 
has  a  powerful  sway  over  the  human  heart.  It  is 
a  most  important  element  in  patriotism  itself,  and, 
like  filial  affection,  can  be  destroyed  by  none  but 
mighty  causes.  This  is  true,  whether  it  be  a 
government  created  by  the  people,  like  our  own — 
whose  majesty  is  seen  and  felt  in  the  laws  by 
which  they  choose  to  bind  themselves — or  whether 
it  be  a  government  of  any  other  kind.  Patriot- 
ism— a  higher  principle  than  the  love  of  a  mere 
locality — draws  the  affections  of  the  heart  to  that 
source  of  power  which  dispenses  peace,  justice, 
security  and  repose;  and  those  affections  can  never 
be  diverted  from  that  direction  except  by  gross 
and  outrageous  wrong,  insufferable  and  degrading 
injury.  It  becomes  us  to  inquire  why  this  dis- 
turbing anxiety  among  ourselves?  What  has 
clouded  our  horizon  ?  What  has  transformed  this 
hall,  once  the  scene  of  calm  deliberation,  into  the 
theatre  of  fierce  debate?  What  disturbing  ele- 
ment is  that  which  mingles  itself  in  every  act  of 
this  House,  marring  its  harmony  and  destroying 
its  dignity?  Why  has  the  anomaly  of  our  disor- 
ganization at  the  present  session  of  Congress  ex- 
cited the  apprehension  of  a  large  portion  of  our 
countrymen,  and,  I  had  almost  said,  the  disgust 
of  all?  Why  the  intense  interest  in  the  election 
of  an  officer  of  this  House,  whose  station  derives 
most  of  its  consequence  from  the  petty  emolu- 
ments which  pertain  to  it?  Surely  no  event  of 
recent  occurrence  is  the  cause.  Nothing  which 
has  sprung  up  suddenly  in  our  midst  could  have 
produced  such  results.  The  prophet's  gourd 
sprang  up  in  a  night,  but  it  perished  as  soon;  but 
these  scenes  of  exasperation  and  strife  follow  each 
other  in  quick  succession,  each  more  abiding  in 
its  effects  and  more  menacing  in  its  character. 
Sir,  it  is  a  melancholy  truth  that  there  is  a  deep 
and  fixed  alienation  among  the  people  of  this  Re- 
public, which  has  at  last  been  marked  by  a  geo- 
graphical line.  A  feeling  of  settled  hostility  does 
exist^  and  he  is  reckless  of  the  influence  of  facts 
who  does  not  perceive  it. 

A  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Schenck]  some 
days  since  declared,  that  when  it  became  the 
settled  policy  of  the  people  of  this  Republic  that 
no  man  from  the  slaveholding  States  would  vote 
for  one  in  the  non-slaveholding  States,  and  vice 


4 


versa,  this  Union  was  dissolved.  That  event 
would  not  dissolve  the  Union.  No,  sir,  the  effi- 
cient cause  would,  have  long  preceded  it.  Such 
hostile  feeling  would  be  the  consequence  of  policy 
long  anterior;  and  that  gentleman,  should  he  lire 
to  see  such  a  result,  mi^ht  perhaps  find  in  his  own 
votes  on  the  Wilmot  proviso, ^uid  kindred  meas- 
ures, at  least  one  of  the  principal  elements  in  this 
deplorable  state  of  things. 

I  am  aware,  sir,  that  it  belongs  to  the  policy  of 
those  who  pursue  a  system  of  wrong  and  oppres- 
sion to  divert  attention  from  themselves,  and  fix 
ihe  blame  of  disturbance  and  disorder  upon  the 
Wionged  and  oppressed.  An  old  device,  but  one 
thas  has  lost  no  charms  in  the  eyes  of  the  unscru- 
pulous. It  is  still  dangerous  in  perverting  or  in 
concealing  the  truth.  To  rebuke  and  restrain  the 
complaints  of  those  who  are  aggrieved,  is,  with 
great  complacency,  denominated  conservatism, 
whilst  their  murmurs  and  remonstrances  are  de- 
nounced as  ultraism  and  impracticability.  The 
oppressed  are  clamorous,  and  attract  observa- 
tion; they  are  plundered,  and  they  remonstrate; 
they  are  unjustly  used,  and  they  complain.  The 
complacent  wrong-doer  calls  himself  a  conservative, 
because  he  has  no  cause  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the 
amount  of  his  plunder,  and  deprecates  a  change  of 
things,  which  would  decrease  his  gains.  Wrapped 
in  the  mantle  of  his  own  good  feelings,  he  wonders 
why  any  of  his  fellow-citizens  should  complain 
of  rights  curtailed,  when,  by  that  operation,  his 
own  are  so  much  increased.  We  know  that  power 
can  purchase  parasites  and  demagogues;  that  the 
masses  who  receive  the  plunder  are  easily  per- 
suaded that  complaints  are  mere  clamor,  and  all 
show  of  resistance  a  wicked  disregard  of  the  obli- 
gations of  society.  Some  twenty  years  since 
we  passed  through  the  first  act  in  this  drama  of 
plunder;  but  the  deed  wasdisguised.  A  protective 
tariff,  by  legislation,  transferred,  on  a  magnificent 
scale,  the  money  of  the  agriculturalists  to  the  cof- 
fers of  the  manufacturers,  and  the  expenditure  of 
much  the  larger  portion  of  the  revenue  at  the  North 
created  a  constant  balance  of  trade  in  their  favor 
against  the  South,  thus  curtailing  our  profits  and 
preventing  the  growth  of  our  commercial  cities. 
Menaced  resistance  compelled  a  relaxation;  but 
rapacity  knows  no  pause,  and  in  our  days  we  wit- 
ness the  open  purpose  of  plundering  the  whole  do- 
main for  partial  distribution.  To  do  this,  the  in- 
stitution of  domestic  slavery  must  be  assailed  and 
weakened,  and  all  the  exasperating  appliances 
which  have  been  adopted  to  consummate  it  are 
pressed  with  unrelenting  tenacity. 

With  these  facts  to  guide  we  can  be  at  no  loss 
to  answer  the  inquiry,  What  are  the  causes  of 
agitation  and  discontent?  We  find  the  first  in  the 
laws  enacted  by  the  non-slaveholding  States,  pre- 
venting and  discouraging  the  recapture  of  fugitives, 
laws  expressly  against  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of 
the  Constitution.  The  attempt  to  emancipate 
slaves  in  this  District,  the  forts,  arsenals,  and 
dock-yards  belonging  to  the  United  States  by  ces- 
sion from  the  Slates  in  which  they  are  located. 
The  purpose  by  the  proviso  to  exclude  slave- 
holders from  all  the  territories  of  the  United"  Slates; 
or  by  a  more  compendious  measure,  the  forcible 
manufacture  by  Executive  interference  of  States 
out  of  territorial  domain  with  this  exclusion  in  the 
constitution,  and  their  unceremonious  introduc- 
tion into  this  Confederacy.     All  these  measures 


indicate  an  undisguised  purpose  for  the  total  eman- 
cipation of  slaves  throughout  the  United  States  as 
well  as  the  territories.  A  purpose  which,  so  far 
from  being  concealed,  was  boldly  announced  in 
the  Senate  during  the  last  Congress  by  the  late 
Senator  from  New  York,  [Mr.  Dix.]  He  said 
that,  the  policy  and  the  design  of  those  who  op- 
posed the  extension  of  slavery  by  the  proviso  was 
to  "  surround  the  slave  States  with  a  cordon  of 
free  States  and  starve  slavery  out."  The  meaning 
of  which  ominous  warning  can  only  be  this:  to 
compress  the  white  and  black  race  within  such  a 
narrow  compass  that  the  white  race  must  abandon 
their  country  to  blacks,  or  come  under  their  polit- 
ical control  by  the  mere  force  of  numbers.  A  de- 
gradation aggravated  by  the  most  refined  cruelty, 
a  policy  to  overwhelm  and  ruin  the  South,  which 
has  no  parallel  in  its  enormity  but  the  cool  malig- 
nity with  which  it  is  announced. 

These  are  the  causes  of  agitation.  These  causes 
exist  and  are  continually  increasing  in  aggravation. 
Let  us  now  enquire  who  are  the  agitators  and  dis- 
turbers? And  here,  sir,  as  in  the  whole  course  of 
my  remarks,  1  shall  abstain  from  any  declaration 
unaccompanied  with  proof.  I  mean  to  be  respectful, 
and  if  compelled  to  speak  strongly,  I  undertake  to 
speak  no  more  strongly  than  well-ascertained  facts 
demand.  I  answer  the  question,  who  are  the  agi- 
tators ?  by  averring  that  the  advocates  of  those  of- 
fensive measures  are  alone  to  be  blamed  for  the 
disturbance  of  our  repose,  the  destruction  of  our 
tranquillity. 

The  committee  is  indebted  to  the  honorable 
member  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Fitch]  for  an  enter- 
tainment with  which  he  favored  them  in  the  re- 
marks submitted  on  yesterday.  He  made  a  dis- 
claimer of  any  pretension  to  the  character  of  a 
constitutional  lawyer,  which  he  might  have  spared 
himself;  for,  before  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks, 
1  presume  that  no  member  of  thecommittee  would 
have  harbored  such  a  suspicion.  But  there  was 
one  character  in  the  farce  for  which  he  exhibited 
most  striking  qualifications,  and  for  which  his 
former  pursuits  had  eminently  fitted  him.  I  very 
much  question  whether  there  has  ever  been  a  more 
happy  personification  of  the  mock-doctor  than  the 
honorable  member  has  given  us  on  that  occasion. 
He  lectured  upon  monomania  with  the  unction  of 
one  deeply  experienced  in  its  symptoms,  and  left 
none  in  doubt  of  his  experimental  knowledge  of 
the  malady.  With  a  wit  which  was  chiefly  derived 
from  the  stores  of  memory  and  historical  allusions 
founded  on  authority  which  justly  entitled  them  to 
the  character  of  fancy  sketches,  he  lectured  south- 
ern gentlemen  for  their  impudence,  and  with  the 
ex  cathedra  manner  of  one  who  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  teaching  with  authority,  recommended  re- 
straints upon  the  personal  liberty  of  some  of  us 
lest  our  freaks  of  insanity  should  ^e  mischievous. 

With  the  deep  acumen  of  one  well  informed  in 
the  history  of  the  country,  he  advised  us  of  the 
fact  that  the  ordinance  of  1787  was  a  precedent  to 
justify  legislation  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in 'the 
Territories  by  Congress.  Doubtless,  posterity 
will  acknowledge  the  obligation  for  this  discovery. 
We  had  always  supposed  that  it  was  prior  to  the 
existence  of  Congress  or  the  Constitution,  an  ord- 
inance or  treaty  made  by  the  old  thirteen  before 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  which  on  its  face, 
purports  to  be  junior  to  the  ordinance.  But  this 
is  the  age  of  light,  progress,  and  discovery.     His 


quotation  from  the  Scottish  bard  would  have  been 
peculiarly  appropriate  to  himself,  if  he  had  re- 
membered a  most  remarkable  piece  of  history  in 
his  own  State,  of  recent  occurrence.  Perhaps  it  has 
occurred  too  lately  to  be  remembered.  On  the 
12th  of  January,  1850,  the  Legislature  of  Indiana 
passed  an  act  directing  the  Governor  to  procure  a 
suitable  block  of  marble  from  a  quarry  in  that 
State,  to  be  placed  in  the  Washington  Monument, 
which  is  now  building  in  this  city.  Upon  it,  by 
his  direction,  the  following  inscription  is  placed  : 
*«  Indiana  knows  no  North — no  South — nothing 
but  the  Union."  On  the  19th  of  the  same  month 
the  same  Legislature  passed  resolutions  instructing 
their  Senators,  and  requesting  her  Representatives 
to  vote  for  the  Wilmot  proviso  as  a  part  of  any 
bills  which  may  be  presented  to  Congress  estab- 
lishing governments  in  the  territory  recently  ac- 
quired from  Mexico.  Now,  sir,  who  but  one 
deeply  affected  with  monomania  could  look  upon 
these  two  incidents,  so  completely  cotemporane- 
ous,  without  being  struck  with  their  absurd  in- 
consistency ?  The  inscription,  to  keep  pace  with 
the  resolutions,  should  have  read — "Indiana  knows 
the  North,  but  knows  no  South,  and  nothing  of 
the  Union  founded  on  the  Constitution."  Alas! — 
No  rim  can  hold  licentious  wickedness, 
W»en  down  the  tide  he  holds  his  fierce  career: 
We  may  as  well  send  precepts  to  Leviathan 
To  come  ashore. 

I  shall  speak  of  the  proviso  policy  as  unchanged ; 
for  although  its  aspect  does  present  some  varia- 
tions, yet  the  purpose  is  the  same.  The  recent 
vote,  laying  the  resolutions  of  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio  [Mr.  Root]  on  the  table,  indicates  no  de- 
termination to  abandon  the  proviso.  The  change 
was  too  sudden  to  be  sincere,  or  it  grew  out  of 
the  fact,  that  the  resolution  was  enlarged  so  as  to 
include  California.  The  resolutions  presented  by 
that  gentlemen  a  few  days  before,  to  instruct  the 
Committee  on  Territories  to  report  bills  for  the 
government  of  the  territory  east  of  the  Sierre 
Nevada,  excluding  slavery  therefrom,  was  sub- 
jected at  once  to  a  motion  to  lay  them  on  the  table. 
The  House  refused  to  do  so  by  a  majority  about 
as  large  as  that  which  laid  them  on  the  table  after 
their  amendment  so  as  to  include  California.  Cali- 
fornia was  knocking  at  the  door  with  a  constitution 
excluding  slavery;  and  the  instructions  asked  for 
would  give  up  that  advantage.  It  would  be  most 
easy  to  explain  that  vote  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
most  determined  proviso  Free  Soil  constituency. 
It  was  a  vote  to  give  proviso  territorial  govern- 
ments to  the  territory  east  of  the  Sierre  Nevada, 
and  hold  on  to  the  ehance3  of  the  admission  of 
California.  When  California  was  included,  to  lay 
on  the  table  left  the  chances  the  same  for  the  ter- 
ritorial bills,  (for,  however  reported,  the  proviso 
could  be  attached,)  and  the  advantage  of  position 
which  the  restrictive  constitution  of  California  has, 
still  retained. 

If  we  ever  were  at  any  loss  upon  that  subject,  our 
doubts  are  removed  by  the  announcement  of  the 
gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Baker]  that  it  was  a 
great  mistake  that  the  proviso  was  abandoned.  He 
said  that  when  it  was  presented  to  the  House  as  a 
specific  proposition  this  would  be  manifest.  So 
there  ie«s  no  purpose  to  give  up  the  proviso,  and  a 
fixed  determination  to  hold  on  to  any  advantages 
arising  from  the  position  of  California.  They 
would  be  unskillful  tactitions  indeed  who  would 


fail  to  secure  such  advantages  by  parliamentary 
adroitness.  If  California  is  admitted  under  the 
constitution  on  our  table,  the  most  effectual  pro- 
viso is  enacted.  If  territorial  governments  are 
given  to  the  country  east  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  the 
proviso  will  be  attached  to  the  bills;  if  withheld, 
the  masterly  inactivity  in  appearance,  but  Execu- 
tive interference  in  fact,  which  is  the  policy  of  the 
President,  will  speedily  settle  all  this  question 
asainst  the  South.  I  saw  through  the  whole  mat- 
ter when  the  vote  was  given.  I  was  constrained 
to  smile  at  the  mistake,  that  intimidation  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  apparent  change  of  vote;  it 
was  dexterity,  it  was  skillful  management,  to  make 
great  progress  towards  the  consummation  of  the 
slavery  restriction,  without  exciting  apprehension 
—  to  give  the  South  the  appearance  of  victory,  in 
order  that  this  concession  might  ensure  ultimate 
and  overwhelming  defeat.  The  excited  South 
must  be  amused,  must  be  diverted,  and  this  cheap 
device,  costing  nothing  and  worth  nothing  to  us,  is 
resorted  to  for  that  purpose.  It  would  be  amusing, 
if  it  were  not  so  insulting  to  our  understandings,  to 
examine  the  various  expedients  v/hich  have  been 
resorted  to  to  make  southern  men  submissive  to 
the  policy  which  must  end  in  their  ruin.  And 
here  I  would  refer  to  some  incidents  in  our  history 
which  ought  never  to  be  overlooked. 

I  pass  by  the  surrender  of  the  Northwestern 
Territory  without  a  consideration,  and  the  Mis- 
souri compromise.  The  first  was  a  treaty  made 
before  the  Constitution,  and  the  last,  though  un- 
constitutional and  oppressive  to  the  South,  has 
been  so  long  acquiesced  in  as  to  be  tolerated  on 
that  account.  At  least  no  southern  statesman  is 
now  disposed  to  disturb  it.  I  come  to  more  recent 
events  as  affecting  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  giv- 
ing color  and  character  to  the  transactions  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  the  actors.  I  refer  to  flagrant 
and  open  violations  of  the  Constitution  which  are 
justified  and  maintained  by  parties  to  the  contract, 
as  well  as  those  concerning  the  constitutionality  of 
which  a  doubt  has  been  raised  only  to  justify  a 
tyrannical  majority  in  inflicting  wrong.  Can  any 
provision  of  the  Constitution  be  plainer  than  that 
which  requires  the  surrender  of  fugitives  from  la- 
bor, or,  in  plain  language,  runaway  slaves?  The 
courts  have  so  decided,  and  the  common  sense  of 
mankind  recognizes  the  simple  provision  in  all  its 
force  and  effect?  The  Constitution  requires  each 
member  of  State  Legislatures  and  all  the  offi- 
cers of  State  to  take  a  solemn  oath  to  maintain  its 
provisions.  With  this  oath  upon  their  consciences 
they  have  enacted  laws  violating  this  provision, 
and  given  protection  to  the  fugitive — denying  the 
owner  their  State  courts,  forbidding  citizens  to  aid 
in  the  recovery,  yea,  making  such  aid  a  highly 
penal  offence.  This  disregard  of  the  sanction  of 
an  oath  in  the  passage  of  the  law  is  consumma- 
ted in  its  execution,  and  popular  opinion  sustains 
the  outrage.  Can  a  more  conclusive  evidence  be 
given  of  total  demoralization  in  communities  ?  Can 
more  overwhelming  proof  be  adduced  of  a  disre- 
gard of  the  Constitution,  the  bond  of  union.  Yes, 
there  is  yet  a  stronger — a  more  humiliating  proof. 
It  is  found  in  this,  that  the  authors  of  these  un- 
righteous laws,  so  far  from  rebuke,  meet  with  ap- 
plause; instead  of  censure,  secure  political  eleva- 
tion as  a  reward  for  their  moral  dereliction.  The 
Senate  of  the  United  States  have  now  at  least  two 
members  recently  elected  to  that  body  from  two  of 


the  largest  States  in  the  Confederacy,  who  are  dis- 
tinguished for  their  bold  and  unscrupulous  opin- 
ions upon  this  subject.  The  one  from  New  York 
favored  the  country  with  his  views  in  a  speech  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  which  he  derided  and  scoffed 
at  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  slaveholder,  and 
he  immediately  thereafter  was  rewarded  with  his 
seat  in  the  Senate.  He  is  a  leader  of  the  New 
York  Whigs.  The  other,  from  Ohio,  whose  letter, 
with  which  we  are  ail  ftimiliar,  and  his  open  coop- 
eration with  abolition  conventions  for  years  past, 
have  given  him  deservedly  the  position  of  a  leader 
of  that  party,  rejoices  in  his  position  as  one  of  the 
Free  Democracy.  He,  too,  has  received  his  reward, 
and  occupies  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  This,  sir,  is 
the  worst  sign  of  the  times.  These  movements 
are  made  in  the  face  of  a  most  perilous  excitement 
of  the  public  mind  at  the  South,  and  as  if  in  scorn 
and  contempt  to  ourremonstrancesand  complaints. 

I  doubt  not  but  many  members  of  this  House 
from  those  States  would  gladly  have  prevented 
the  enactment  of  those  laws,  and  the  pursuit  of  a 
policy  which  must  end  in  hostility  and  exaspera- 
tion. But  the  current  is  too  strong;  those  who  in 
former  times,  even  in  the  weaker  state  of  abolition 
feeling,  have  stood  by  the  Constitution,  have  been 
struck  down  for  their  integrity,  or  gone  over  to  the 
enemy.  To  the  few  that  now  remain,  1  attach  a 
value  like  that  given  for  the  last  volume  of  the 
Sybil's  books.  May  they  be  in  like  manner  ap- 
preciated at  home,  and  win  the  honorable  distinc- 
tion to  which  they  are  entitled  by  their  merit  and 
integrity.  I  hope  this,  at  least.  But,  sir,  we  have 
very  little  reason  for  the  hope  that  this  pressure 
from  without  will  cease,  or  be  mitigated.  An  hon- 
orable member  from  Connecticut,  (Mr.  Cleve- 
land,] now  before  me,  was  compelled,  in  order  to 
secure  his  election,  to  accept  the  nomination  of 
the  Free  Soil  Abolition  Convention,  the  ultra 
Liberty  men  of  his  district,  a  nomination  rejected 
by  his  Whig  competitor.  He  adopted,  at  their 
instance,  the  Buffalo  platform,  and  by  the  union  of 
the  two  kinds  of  Democracy,  obtained  his  seat.  I 
have  his  letter  before  me  to  their  Convention,  in 
which  he  fully  accepts  the  terms,  and  by  which  he 
secured  their  votes.  If  he  desires  it,  f  will  read 
the  letter. 

Sir,  we  are  compelled  to  hear  ourselves  and  our 
institutions  denounced — the  northern  press  teems 
with  assaults  upon  the  whole  South;  and  when 
exhausted  patience  causes  us  to  speak  as  becomes 
men,  we  are  denounced,  and  the  act  of  the  wrong- 
doer palliated.  Their  executive  messages,  their 
legislative  resolutions,  urge  on  the  aggressive  ad- 
vance of  the  Free  Soil  and  Abolition  party.  The 
The  tables  of  both  Houses  are  loaded  with  such 
manifestos.  Those  of  the  Legislature  of  Vermont, 
in  advance  of  all  heretofore  passed,  actually  claim 
the  right  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States  admit- 
ted since  the  adoption  of  the'Constitution;  and  yet 
the  popular  current  sets  stronger,  and  presses  with 
a  mightier  force.  Nothing  stays  its  progress — no 
road  to  honor  so  sure  as  to  float  on  its  waves — no 
policy  so  certain  of  securing  popular  favour,  as  an 
utter  disregard  of  the  rights  of  equals  in  this  union 
of  States.  When  rulers,  from  ignorance,  corrup- 
tion, or  any  other  cause,  have  failed  to  fulfill  the 
high  trust  reposed  in  them  by  the  people  who 
elected  them,  there  is  a  remedy  in  the  hands  of 
that  people,  which  may  restore  confidence  and 
punish  unfaithfulness.     But  woe  to  that  country 


where  public  sentiment  is  corrupted  at  its  source; 
where  wicked  and  fanatical  men  have  so  de- 
bauched the  public  conscience  as  to  justify  moral 
obliquity. 

It  is  an  insult  to  our  understandings  to  say  tha't 
a  few  individuals  whose  reason  has  yielded  to  mo- 
nomania, or  a  handful  of  hypocrites  who  profess 
motives  which  have  no  place  in  their  hearts,  are 
the  sole  agitators  in  the  non-slavehohling  States. 
We  are  told,  I  know,  that  southern  statesmen, 
southern  hotspurs  and  agitators,  are  the  irritating 
sauses  of  this  great  excitement.'  Why,  then,  does 
it  control  the  votes  of  northern  gentlemen  here? 
Why  do  they  vote  for  the  proviso,  and  all  its  kin- 
dred measures,  directed  at  the  institutions  of  the 
South  ?  With  a  few  exceptions  on  this  side,  who 
in  this  House  vote  against  any  of  the  abolition 
movements  here,  when  presented  in  a  practical 
shape?  Refer  to  the  vote  of  last,  session  on  the 
resolutions  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York, 
[Mr.  Gott,]  the  bill  of  the  member  from  Ohio, 
[Mr.  Gjddings.]  and  the  question  is  answered  at 
once.  The  organization  of  parties,  as  Whig  and 
Democratic,  is  sternly  maintained  for  some  pur- 
poses, (I  may  not  say  what,)  but  within  that  or- 
ganization there  is  yet  another — a  league  to  war 
against  the  institutions  and  the  rights  of  the  South; 
and  northern  Whigs  and  northern  Democrats  vie 
with  each  other  in  manifesting  their  zeal  in  this 
crusade.  I  was  the  other  day  much  interested  to 
observe  the  composing  effect  produced  by  this 
common  purpose.  After  a  fierce  debate  which 
took  place  between  three  gentlemen  on  this  floor, 
one  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Giddings]  assailed  the  former 
Speaker  [Mr.  Winthrop]  for  the  organization  of 
the  committees  in  the  last  Congress.  His  col- 
league [Mr.  Schenck]  defended  the  late  Speaker, 
who  endorsed  his  defence.  Upon  the  issue  as  to 
the  amount  of  conservatism  and  freesoilism,  and 
the  extent  to  which  the  late  Speaker  adopted  free- 
soil  opinions,  the  debate  became  animated,  and  the 
parties  grew  warm.  But  the  excitement  was  soon 
extinguished;  an  occasion  of  sympathy  soon  pre- 
sented itself;  a  place  where  their  feelings  could 
mingle  like  the  waters  of  the  sweet  vale  of  Avoca, 
renowned  in  song.  Another  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Root]  introduced  a  resolution  to  instruct 
the  Committee  on  Territories  to  report  bills  for 
the  government  of  our  domain  east  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  including  New  Mexico,  and  excluding 
slavery  therein.  As  a  test  vote,  some  gentleman 
moved  to  lay  that  resolution  on  the  table.  This 
was  to  those  chafed  combatants  that  refreshing 
valley,  they  all  then  voted  against  laying  the  reso- 
lution on  the  table,  and  their  hearts,  like  those  po- 
etic waters,  were  mingled  in  peace. 

Sir,  free-soilism  and  its  consequences  consti- 
tute the  true  basis  of  a  great  party  organization  in 
this  House,  and  I  may  add,  in  the  country.  None 
can  suppose  that  we  who  look  upon  such  scenes 
as  that  just  described  are  so  unsophisticated  as  not 
to  understand  it.  There  are  some  in  both  houses 
of  Congress,  and  doubtless  many  of  their  constit- 
uents, who  duly  appreciate  our  constitutional 
rights,  and  do  their  utmost  to  secure  them.  To 
such  I  now  distinctly  declare  1  have  no  reference 
in  my  remarks.  I  admire  and  honor  them  the 
more  for  the  firmness  and  candor  with  which  they 
act  in  the  face  of  a  misguided,  a  perverted  public 
opinion.  I  mean  no  disrespect  to  any.  For  I 
presume  that  no  gentleman  can  be  offended  when 


I  fairly  state  his  political  creed.  I  mean  nothing 
offensive  when  I  denominate  all  Wilmot  proviso 
men,  or  those  who  advocate  its  kindred  measures, 
Free  Soilers.  Mr.  Webster  claims  for  the  northern 
Whig  party  the  honor  of  being  the  true  Free  Soil 
party.  He  congratulates  them  that  the  Buffalo 
platform,  though  having  some  rotten  planks,  (free 
trade  and  subtreasury,  I  suppose,)  gives  him  and 
them  a  secure  place  to  stand  upon  in  the  great 
crusade  for  "  free  soil,  free  labor  and  free  people." 
The  two  sections  of  the  northern  Democratic  party 
seem  to  have  amalgated  almost  entirely  upon  the 
free  soil  question,  so  far  as  the  proviso  is  concern- 
ed, and  here  in  this  House  present  a  front  more 
nearly  united  than  any  party  or  any  other  issue. 

I  know  that  there  are  very  many  Free  Soilers 
who  disavow  with  propriety  the  name  of  abolition- 
ists. They  are  content  with  preventing  the  ex- 
tension of  the  institution  of  slavery  into  new  ter- 
ritories, whilst  the  abolitionists  purpose  to  destroy 
it  where  it  exists.  The  friends  of  the  proviso  policy 
would  besiege  the  South  with  their  hosts,  and 
keep  them  within  their  fortress.  The  aboliiionists 
lead  on  the  assault  upon  the  fortress  itself,  to  carry 
it  by  storm.  Should  they  fail  in  the  attack,  they 
have  a  refuge  in  the  impregnable  position  of  those, 
who  although  disclaiming  to  be  their  allies  in 
name,  are  their  allies  in  fact.  It  is  time  that  this 
fact  was  fully  understood.  There  is  a  Northern 
Whig,  and  there  is  also  a  Northern  Democratic 
party.  This  organization  relates  to  themselves. 
But  there  is  a  Free  Soil  party,  absorbing  every 
shade  of  opinion  which  opposes  the  institution  of 
domestic  slavery,  including  by  far  the  greater  por- 
tion of  both  these  great  parties.  This  last  organi- 
zation relates  to  the  South,  to  us  of  the  South  and 
our  interests.  Nor  can  it  be  otherwise.  In  the 
nonslaveholding  States  there  are  three  orders  of 
those,  who,  whilst  they  include  a  vast  numerical 
majority,  present  all  the  phases  of  opinion  upon 
the  slavery  question.  First,  those  who  consider 
slavery  a  mortal  sin  against  the  Divine  law — pol- 
luting and  corrupting  to  the  whole  people  in  any 
way  connected  therewith,  and,  as  if  under  the 
command  of  heaven,  they  stand  pledged  for  its 
extermination.  They  admit  the  power  of  no  hu- 
man laws,  the  obligations  of  no  constitutional  pro- 
vision, as  any  restraint  upon  their  efforts  to  abolish 
it.  A  second  class  declare  it  to  be  a  great  and  a 
heinous  crime  against  the  natural  rights  of  man — 
a  crime,  however,  countenanced  by  the  laws  and 
allowed  by  the  Constitution.  Against  the  continu- 
ance of  this  criminal  license  they  stand  pledged  to 
employ  all  their  powers  and  unite  all  their  strength; 
to  repeal  the  laws  which  allow  its  perpetuation, 
and  to  alter  the  Constitution  which  gives  it  pro- 
tection. 

There  is  a  third  and  as  yet  more  numerous  class 
who  consider  slavery  a  great  political  evil,  which 
ought  not  to  be  extended,  but  ought  to  be  cur- 
tailed. Now  we  know  that  argument  is  wasted 
and  time  mis-spent  in  addressing  the  understand- 
ings of  the  two  classes  first  named.  Nothing  is 
more  unavailing  than  a  legal  argument  or  a  de- 
monstration in  political  economy  when  opposed  by 
a  moral  feeling  in  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed. 
If  the  feeling  be  sincere,  conscience  resists  effec- 
tually the  force  of  demonstration;  if  insincere,  the 
task  is  yet  more  hopeless,  because  truth  can  have 
no  legitimate  influence.  These  parties  must  in- 
crease, because  religious  fanaticism  and  excited 


sympathies  for  wrongs,  either  real  or  supposed, 
move  with  resistless  power  upon  the  human  heart. 
You  may  address  reasons  to  the  third  class,  and 
they  may  be  convinced  so  far  at  least  as  to  leave 
us  to  our  own  evil  of  slavery,  but  they  cannot  con- 
sent to  its  extension;  a  conclusion  in  which  they 
all  concur.  From  this  third  class,  who,  to  say 
the  most  for  them,  are  not  the  most  active  in  op- 
position to  southern  interests,  all  the  recruits  to 
the  first  named  must  come.  And  they  have  gone 
over  to  them  with  fearful  rapidity.  In  vain  does 
the  still  small  .voice  of  reason  utter  its  conclu- 
sions; the  storm  of  passion,  the  raging  of  phren- 
sied  excitement  overwhelm  its  whispers — and  all 
are  drawn  by  the  same  impulse  to  the  same  po- 
sition.        % 

These,  sir,  are  the  causes  of  agitation  and  dis- 
turbance,— deeply  seated  in  the  nature  of  things, 
and  belonging  to  the  case.  I  again  ask,  who  are 
the  agitators? — who  the  disturbers?  It  is  mani- 
fest that  southern  statesmen  and  southern  States 
have  not  been  aggressive.  The  Missouri  compro- 
mise gave  away  slave  territory  without  considera- 
tion. A  settlement  of  the  question,  as  it  was 
hoped,  unjust  to  the  South,  but  acquiesced  in  as 
the  price  of  peace.  The  history  of  the  past  and 
present  events  expose  the  delusion.  Was  the 
South  aggressive  here?  Has  the  South  violated 
this  compromise,  or  made  an  attempt  to  do  so? 
Under  cover  of  the  right  of  petition,  the  question 
of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  this  District  and  else- 
where, was  agitated  in  Congress.  The  right  of 
petition,  secured  in  the  Constitution,  was  for  the 
redress  of  grievances,  not  for  inflicting  wrongs — to 
obtain  the  rights  of  the  petitioners  ■unjustly  withheld, 
not  for  the  destruction  of  the  property  of  others, 
property  guarantied  by  the  Constitution.  Was 
the  South  aggressive  here?  The  appropriation  of 
the  entire  public  domain  to  the  citizens  of  the  non- 
slaveholding States,  an  inflexible  adherence  of  a 
numerical  majority  to  the  Wilmot-proviso  policy, 
although  the  whole  South  most  solemnly  declares 
that  the  act  will  assuredly  produce  a  separation 
from  the  Confederacy.  Is  the  South  aggressive 
here?  The  assertion  of  not  only  the  right,  but 
the  duty  of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  this 
District,  the  forts,  arsenals,  and  dock-yards,  within 
the  southern  and  slaveholding  States,  where  prop- 
erty has  been  ceded  to  the  Federal  Government  for 
purposes  of  defence,  although  the  South  has  with 
great  unanimity  pronounced  solemnly  that  dis- 
union must  be  the  consequence.  Is  the  South  ag- 
gressive here?  The  deliberate  nullification  of  a 
solemn  provision  of  the  Constitution,  not  only  by 
declining  legislation,  but  by  positive  enactment  of 
State  laws,  which  prevent  the  execution  of  the 
provision  relating  to  fugitive  slaves,  thus,  in  fact, 
affording  protection  to  kidnappers  and  a  bounty 
to  thieves.  Is  the  South  aggressive  in  this?  The 
recenf  assertion  by  the  Legislature  of  Vermont 
that  Congress  has  power  over,  and  ought  to  inter- 
fere with,  slavery  in  those  States  which  have  been 
admitted  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution; 
thus  exposing  all  the  southwest  to  this  desolating 
power.  Is  the  South  aggressive  in  this?  And,  as 
if  this  were  not  sufficient  cause  of  exasperation,  , 
the  superadded  usurpation  of  the  Executive  in  the 
case  of  California — a  State  called  into  existence  by 
Executive  power,  excluding  the  South  by  a  con- 
stitutional provision,  under  a  government  which, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  was  revolutionary  and  in. 


8 


defiance  of  authority.  Grasping  at  one  effort,  the 
whole  Pacific  coast,  and  appropriating-  jis  advanta- 
ges to  all  butthose  whose  swords  aided  in  winning 
the  possession,  or  whose  blood  stained  its  soil,  1 
ask,  is  the  South  aggressive  here?  No,  sir;  the 
South  has  never  been  aggressive  on  the  North.  I 
challenge  the  records  of  history  or  the  memory  of 
man  for  the  instance.  That  history,  in  its  instruct- 
ive annals,  will  perpetuate  the  evidence  of  for- 
bearance unequalled — loyalty  to  the  Union  un- 
paralleled, and  devotion  to  the  Constitution  which 
knows  no  equal.  This  patience,  this  loyal  senti- 
ment, this  enduring  attachment  to  the  Union,  under 
such  provoking  injuries,  has  produced  the  convic- 
tion on  the  minds  of  those  who  wrong  us,  that  we 
are  not  in  earnest  in  our  warnings — not  determined 
in  our  purposes  of  resistance.  Perhaps  we  in 
some  measure  deserve  this  manifestation  of  con- 
temptuous incredulity.  Those  who  have  offered 
insult  with  impunity,  may  sometimes  safely  calcu- 
late on  the  pusillanimity  of  those  who  have  been 
insulted.  It  may,  however,  be  true,  that  our  pa- 
triotic attachment  to  the  Constitution,  the  only 
bond  of  union,  cannot  be  appreciated  by  those, 
whose  frequent  violations  of  its  requisitions  have 
rendered  them  insensible  to  its  obligations. 

Unscrupulous  men  are  apt  to  forget  that  there  is 
any  such  restraint  as  principle,  any  such  monitor 
in  the  human  bosom  as  conscience.  Sir,  it  is 
because  we  believe  that  disunion  is  better  than 
emancipation,  that  any  result  is  preferable  to  the 
attempt  to  give  equality  to  the  two  races  by  legisla- 
tion— a  belief  openly  expressed  and  found  fixed  in 
every  southern  mind — which  has  induced  those 
who  pursue  a  policy  directed  to  the  production  of 
those  results,  to  call  us  disunionists.  The  army  of 
Wilmot-proviso  free  soilers  have  surrounded  us 
with  a  numerical  majority.  They  hold  their  po- 
sition and  send  on  bands  of  armed  abolitionists  as 
skirmishers  to  bring  on  the  battle.  If  successful, 
they  will  claim  the  honor  of  negro  emancipation. 
Whilst  the  struggle  lasts,  they  reproach  the  com- 
batants as  the  causes  of  disorder.  And  if  their 
allies  are  discomfited  they  will  have  to  bear  the 
blame  of  the  assault.  We  are  told  that  ultra 
southern  statesmen  and  northern  abolitionists 
agree  in  desiring  disunion.  And  this  taunting  re- 
mark is  rung  through  all  the  changes  in  order  to 
discredit  all  southern  men  who  speak  of  resist- 
ance. It  is  true  that  the  open  abolitionists,  both 
here  and  among  their  constituency  in  the  non- 
slaveholding  States,  do  advocate  disunion,  as  a 
duty  which  they  owe  to  God  and  man,  because  of 
certain  conscientious  convictions  as  regards  the 
sin  of  slavery.  No  concession  short  of  universal 
emancipation  will  satisfy  them,  both  in  States  and 
Territories.  They  deny  the  obligations  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union  which  it  creates,  and 
inculcate  its  abrogation,  enjoin  disobedience  to  its 
authority,  because  it  tolerates  slavery  and  recog- 
nizes the  relation  arising  therefrom.  They  de- 
clare that  no  faith  should  be  kept  with  slave- 
holders, and  that  the  Union  and  the  Constitution 
defiles  them  with  deadly  sin.  They  turn  their 
backs  upon  the  Union  as  an  evil  per  se,  and 
trample  on  the  Constitution  as  acknowledging  the 
obligation  in  this  Government  to  protect  slavery 
by  its  guarantees. 

Southern  men  agree  with  them  that  the  Consti- 
tution does  recognize  and  protect  domestic  slavery; 
that  the  institution  was  a  most  important  element 

\ 


in  its  formation,  and  that  all  of  those  guarantees 
were  adopted  with  reference  to  the  rights  of  slave- 
holders. They  demand  the  preservation  of  their 
rights  under  the  Constitution,  and  no  further  than 
they  are  there  declared.  They  charge  that  resis- 
tance on  their  part,  is  no  violation  of  the  Consti- 
tution or  the  Union;  but  a  mere  assertion  of  their 
rights  under  both.  An  assertion  which  may 
amount  to  violence,  because,  by  the  laws  of  nature 
as  well  as  of  every  social  compact,  it  is  a  duty  to 
repel  the  aggressions  of  government,  by  a  resis- 
tance sufficient  to  overcome  the  force  of  the  usur- 
pation. Less  than  this,  would  be  unsuccessful, 
and  make  the  usurpation  more  intolerable,  because 
unsuccessful  resistance  necessarily  increases  the 
power  that  it  was  intended  to  restrain.  The  Abo- 
litionist pursues  disunion  as  an  end  to  be  desired; 
the  southern  slaveholder  looks  to  it  as  the  conse- 
quence of  accumulated  wrongs.  The  Abolitionist 
is  a  mere  fanatic;  pursues  it  to  gratify  his  consci- 
entious scruples  about  other  men's  sins;  if  a 
hypocite,  as  a  means  of  obtaining  power.  The 
southern  men  avoid  it,  until  wrongs  growing  out 
of  the  connection  become  less  tolerable  than  dis- 
union. The  Abolitionists  disavow  the  moral  ob- 
ligations growing  out  of  the  Constitution;  south- 
ern men  stand  upon  the  Constitution  and  ask  no 
higher  boon  than  it  secures. 

The  Abolitionists  set  fire  to  the  dwelling  in 
which  we  have  a  common  residence,  and  the 
southern  man  is  called  an  incendiary  because  he 
will  not  continue  to  inhabit  the  burning  house  and 
perish  in  the  flames.  And  yet  southern  men  are 
insolently  taunted  with  affiliation  with  those  who 
do  wrong  for  the  sake  of  wrong,  and  assail  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union,  in  obedience  to  the 
avowed  maxims  of  their  political  creed.  In  one 
thing,  however,  the  Abolitionist  has  boasted,  and 
with  some  show  of  propriety.  His  assaults  are 
open,  his  purposes  acknowledged.  Whether  sin- 
cere or  not,  he  is  undisguised.  That  which  was 
a  feeble  faction,  has  become  a  controlling  power; 
and  there  are  more  than  one  member  of  both 
Houses  of  this  Congress  who  owe  their  seats  here 
to  their  votes.  We  know  their  purpose,  and  in 
their  conventions  we  see  their  numbers;  and  we 
feel  their  power.  We  feel  it,  because  the  whole 
strength  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  party  forms  their 
vanguard,  and  act  with  them.  They  unite  in 
seizing  the  public  domain  for  the  inheritance  of 
non-slaveholders.  They  stand  by  them  in  every 
assault  upon  domestic  slavery,  whenever  it  is 
pretended  that  Congress  has  a  right  to  interfere. 
The  Abolitionists,  content  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
disavow  the  obligations  of  the  "Constitution,  and 
take  what  they  have  in  possession  and  set  up  for 
themselves.  In  doing  this,  he  is  willing  to  leave 
the  South  to  the  slaves  and  their  sins  to  make 
the  best  of  it;  whilst  they  thank  God  that  they  are 
not  as  these  publicans.  They  are  at  least  willing 
to  depart  without  plundering — to  leave  us  without 
further  degradation  than  that  which  they  suppose 
attaches  to  our  institutions.  But  the  party 
advocating  the  proviso  and  equivalent,  measures, 
whether  Whig  or  Democratic,  claim  to  hold  us  to 
a  bond  (the  force  of  which  they  do  not  feel  on  them- 
selves) to  bind  us  as  the  Druid  bound  his  victim, 
and  see  us  expire  by  the  slow  process  of  legisla- 
tive torments.  The  Union  is  the  ligature  by 
which  we  are  to  be  held  in  position  to  be  first 
plundered  and  then  degraded, and  rendered  insensi- 


9 


ble  to  both  by  the  repetition  of  injury;  if  resistance 
be  thought  of,  to  be  gravely  cautioned  as  to  the 
consequences  of  treason.  The  Pacha  of  Egypt 
sent  down  thousands  to  excavate  the  great  canal, 
who  perished  in  making  that  monument  of  his 
power.  He  claimed  the  right  because  his  armies 
enforced  his  commands.  That  command  was  as 
just,  and  his  right  to  enforce  obedience  as  ample, 
as  is  the  power  of  a  numerical  majority  to  enforce 
the  proviso  and  its  kindred  measures.  It  is  trne 
his  government  was  despotic,  and  acknowledged 
no  limitation  or  restraint  but  his  will.  The  prin- 
ciple which  secured  obedience  was  fear.  The 
proviso  and  anti-slavery  party  urge  upon  the 
South  loyalty  to  the  Union  as  an  incentive  to  sub- 
mission, and  the  Constitution  intended  to  secure 
equal  justice,  tranquillity  and  repose  as  the  justi- 
fication of  their  aggressions.  The  Abolitionists 
are  open,  the  proviso  party  insidious  and  more 
dangerous  foes.  The  South,  with  one  voice,  de- 
clares it  and  its  kindred  measures  growing  out  of 
intervention  on  the  subject  of  slavery  by  Congress 
as  consummating  the  full  measure  of  wrong,  and 
declare  resistance  to  be  duty.  1  cannot,  I  will  not, 
lower  the  standard  which  they  have  made. 

Having  then,  sir,  as  I  think,  disclosed  the  causes 
of  agitation  and  discontent,  and  who  are  the  agita- 
tors and  disturbers,  I  proceed  to  give  my  views  as 
to  the  real  danger  to  the  Union,  point  out  the  real 
disunionists,  and  the  only  hope  of  averting  the 
calamity  which  is  foreshadowed  by  coming  events.* 
I  have  before  adverted  to  the  great  truth  that  the 
overthrow  of  governments  is  not  wisely  referred 
to  those  causes  which  seem  most  immediately 
operative  in  the  last  act  of  the  drama.  Those 
causes  are  themselves  but  the  effects  of  prior  and 
powerful  principles  of  disorganization,  long  in 
operation,  producing  organic  and  incurable  evil. 
This  is  true,  most  painfully  true,  in  relation  to  the 
danger  which  now  threatens  the  Union  of  this 
Confederacy.  The  bond  of  union  is  the  Consti- 
tution. The  objects  of  that  Union  are  most  fully 
expressed  in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution. 
"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure^ 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common 
defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity, do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  fop- 
the  United  States  of  America."  The  adoption  of 
that  Constitution  is  the  evidence  of  that  Union. 
The  preservation  of  it  guarantees  the  preservation 
of  that  Union.  It  was  adopted  to  limit  the  power 
of  numerical  majorities.  It  was  designed  as  the 
protection  for  the  safety  of  minorities.  But,  sir, 
the  restraints  have  not  been  sufficient,  and  to  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  merely  numerical  ma- 
jorities, much  of  the  evil  which  we  dread  must  be 
in  candor  referred.  For  years  the  inconvenience 
was  not  severely  felt.  Our  Revolutionary  fathers 
fought  for  personal  liberty,  and  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty, homogeneous  in  its  nature  and  common  to 
every  State  in  the  republic.  In  such  a  state  of 
things  the  irstincts  of  self-preservation  draw  men 
together.  The  same  objects  of  pursuit  and  deliv- 
erance from  a  common  evil  restrain  any  mis- 
chievous tendencies  in  the  power  of  a  majority. 
It  is  after  liberty  is  secured  and  revenue  is  raised 
by  taxation — when  the  people  become  divided  into 
those  who  receive  the  patronage  of  government 
and  the  emoluments  of  office,  and  those  who  pay 


the  taxes,  that  the  lust  of  power  invokes  the  aid 
of  majorities  to  sustain  those  who  are  in  author- 
ity. It  is  only  because  the  receivers  of  the  public 
bounty  have  not  become  more  powerful  than  the 
contributors  by  taxation,  that  the  full  weight  of 
this  evil  has  not  been  felt.  Every  pensioner  on  the 
Treasury,  every  newly-created  office,  all  projects 
for  large  expenditure  of  public  money  on  national 
objects,  add  to  the  number  and  increase  their 
power.  When  they  shall  either  by  fraud  or  force 
acquire  a  complete  ascendancy,  the  oppression  of 
the  tax  payers  will  become  terrific.  This  state  of 
things  is  rapidly  approaching.  The  Presidential 
election  is  scarcely  any  thing  but  a  struggle  for 
the  spoils  of  victory,  with  either  party,  and  the 
time  is  near  at  hand  when  a  President  in  power 
may  hold  over  after  the  expiration  of  his  term, 
and  by  the  force  of  patronage  make  good  his  po- 
sition. In  the  necessity  of  the  case,  (for  it  is  a 
part  of  this  system,)  it  has  become  a  political 
maxim  that  the  majority  must  and  have  a  right  to 
govern.  Resistance  is  vain,  for  the  majority  is 
omnipotent — a  fatal  mistake  lying  at  the  founda- 
tion of  things,  subversive  of  all  that  is  valuable, 
and  disavowed  by  the  Constitution.  No  tyrant  is 
so  inexorable  as  a  numerical  majority;  none  more 
oppressive  and  inconsiderate,  from  whose  domin- 
ion despotism  is  an  escape  to  be  coveted  and  de- 
sired. As  a  deliverance  from  this  thraldom,  con- 
stitutions are  adopted.  To  mitigate  the  horrors 
of  such  a  state,  majorities  in  original  conventions 
have  imposed  restraints  upon  themselves  by  adopt- 
ing constitutions  for  the  protection  of  minorities. 
We  have  seen  that  so  far  as  the  South  is  concerned 
that  protection  is  lost,  and  the  reply  to  a  demand 
for  justice  is  the  policy  and  power  of  the  majority. 
It  is  claimed  that  they  have  a  right  to  give  an  au- 
thoritative construction  to  the  Constitution;  and  that 
this  is  a  gross  usurpation,  is  seen  in  the  dexterity 
with  which  each  successful  instance  is  urged  as  a 
precedent  to  justify  each  succeeding  encroachment 
of  that  power.  The  Constitution  itself,  the  pro- 
tection of  the  minority,  is,  by  the  majority,  per- 
verted into  an  engine  of  oppression. 

This  force  of  numerical  majorities  has  come 
back  with  powerful  impulse  upon  the  Govern- 
ment here.  In  seeking  the  elevation  to  the  Presi- 
dency, it  has  become  a  part  of  the  tactics  of  some 
■aspirants  to  disclaim  the  exercise  of  the  veto 
power,  to  seek  for  success  in  the  election.  To 
give  up  that  restraint  upon  the  will  of  majorities, 
wisely  provided  by  the  Constitution  to  secure  the 
attainment  of  numerical  majorities  amongst  the 
people.  The  South,  now  the  weaker — the  minority 
in  the  Government — feels  oppressively  this  power 
— sees  here  the  prostration  of  the  great  conserv- 
ative principle  in  the  bond  of  union.  This  symp- 
tom discloses  organic  disease  in  the  system,  and 
one  v^iich  advances  with  fearful  rapidity.  As  a 
consequence  of  this  doctrine,  a  new  nomenclature 
became  necessary.  New  words  were  introduced; 
wind  names  are  often  the  gravest  indications  of  the 
'decline  of  liberty.  Our  Federal  Government  has 
become  a  national  Government,  a  term  repudiated 
by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  We  speak  of 
national  parties,  national  objects,  as  applicable  to 
our  institutions.  The  French  Republic  was  called 
an- empire  before  Napoleon  ceased  to  be  first  con^ 
sul.  He  demonstrated  the  propriety  of  the  name  by 
assuming  the  title  and  authority  of  emperor.  This 
impulse  of  a  majority  has   truly   perverted*our 


2, 


10 


Federal  into  a  National  Government.  This  great 
central  power  overshadows  the  States,  exercising 
a  control  far  exceeding,  in  force  and  energy,  the 
conception  of  its  authors.  They  trembled,  lest  it 
should  be  found  too  weak  to  withstand  the  en- 
croachments of  the  States.  They  supposed  that 
they  had  created  a  trustee  with  communicated 
powers.  So  thought  the  delegates  to  the  conven- 
tion who  adopted  the  Federal  Constitution  in  Vir- 
ginia. They  reported  to  their  Legislature  that 
they  had  ratified  a  Constitution,  which  committed 
powers  to  the  Federal  Government,  and  "  which 
could  be  resumed  by  the  States  when  used  to  their 
injury."  A  Government  reflecting  the  power  of 
the  States  has  been  perverted  into  a  means  of  pros- 
trating State  sovereignty.  The  creature  aspires  to 
control  the  creator.  Those  who  have  administered 
the  Government,  have  inverted  the  order  of  things. 
The  machinery  has  been  employed  for  purposes  for 
which  it  was  not  designed,  and  power,  which  was 
intended  to  be  salutary,  has  become  mischievous. 
We  have,  by  a  fearful  progress,  departed  from  the 
simple  ends  for  which  the  Union  was  formed,  and 
the  great  distraction  which  now  exists  is  the  ne- 
cessary consequence.  Year  after  year  has  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  assumed  new  and 
extended  jurisdiction,  until  the  trustee  has  become 
the  cestui)  que  trust,  the  agent  the  principal;  and 
all  that  was  secured  by  the  Constitution  to  the 
States,  is  in  process  of  absorption  by  the  Govern- 
ment here.  And  this  is  called  the  Union.  Held 
up  as  a  subject  of  veneration  so  sacred,  that  the 
deepest  denunciations  are  hurled  at  those  who 
presume  to  inquire  into  the  abuses  practised  under 
its  name.  When  a  wanton  majority  here  rush 
over  the  barriers  of  the  Constitution,  and  assail 
our  property,,  and  endanger  our  safety,  and  bring 
the  white  man  in  the  South  to  the  level  with  the 
negro,  to  our  remonstrances  for  existing  wrongs, 
our  warnings  concerning  those  on  future,  are  an- 
swered with — Save  the  Union!  When  insult  is 
added  to  injury,  to  every  declaration  that  the  Con- 
stitution has  been  violated,  and  the  compact  which 
unitesus  is  broken,  thereply  is — Be  patient — savethe 
glorious  Union!  When  a  galling  sense  of  injustice 
from  some  new  outrage  excites  southern  repre- 
sentatives to  strong  expressions  of  indignation, 
they  are  denounced  as  disunionists.  The  atone- 
ment is  a  pa;on  to  the  Union,  or  a  quotation  from 
Washington's  Farewell  Address.  Sir,  it  is  time 
that  this  insidious  game  was  ended,  and  that  those 
who  perpetrate  it,  whether  holding  high  stations, 
or  occupying  those  less  elevated,  should  be  rebuked 
by  the  stern  and  solemn  voice  of  truth.  It  is  time 
that  justice  should  be  heard  above  this  idle  clamor. 
The  bidders  at  the  auction  of  popularity  should 
no  longer  be  rewarded  for  cant,  slang,  and  treach- 
ery. Southern  constituencies  ought  to  know  the 
settled  purpose,  that  under  this  great  namej-r/te 
Union — they  are  to  be  degraded  by  authority, 
plundered  by  statute,  and  disfranchised  by  act  of 
Congress.  It  is  by  this  abuse  of  the  bond  of 
union,  that  it  is  really  endangered;  this  prostitu- 
tion of  its  influence,  that  it  will  forfeit  respect. 

Deeply,  sir,  ought  we  deplore  the  policy  which 
produces  a  spirit  of  distrust,  and  weakens  the  re- 
gards between  the  citizens  of  our  country  on  sec- 
tional grounds.  The  attachment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion as  a  bond  of  union  with  us  was  once  strong 
and  pervading.  No  one  permitted  himself  to  cal- 
culate its  value,  or  to  speak  of  its  destruction. 


Although  long  convinced  that  it  was  of  no  com- 
mercial value  to  the  South,  still,  for  other  reasons, 
as  well  as  a  principle  of  veneration  for  our  ances- 
tors, the  feeling  was  ardent,  deep,  controlling. 
But,  sir,  repeated  injuries  have  done  much  to 
change  this  state  of  things.  That  attachment  to 
the  Union  is  now  but  little  more  than  a  sentiment 
— cherished  still,  it  is  true,  but  rapidly  yielding  to 
another  sentiment,  equally  congenial  to  a  southern  - 
heart.  I  refer  to  a  determination  to  redress  our 
wrongs,  whatever  may  be  the  consequences.  Abo- 
lition missionaries,  incendiary  pamphlets, northern 
kidnappers,  and  all  the  appliances  which  can 
either  annoy  our  peace  or  endanger  our  property, 
have  alienated  much  of  the  regard  once  felt  for  our 
fellow-citizens  of  the  non-slaveholding  States.  We 
are  rapidly  approaching  the  conviction,  that  in 
feeling  and  in  interest  we  are  not  one  people. 
Here,  sir,  is  extreme  danger  to  the  Union.  The 
South  has  not  spared  the  revenue  of  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  benefit  of  the  North.  From  Lake 
Superior  to  Lake  Champlain;  from  the  Canada 
frontier  to  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware,  light- 
houses innumerable  shine  in  the  darkness,  like 
stars  on  the  bosom  of  the  wave.  There  are  more 
of  those  beacons — and  with  no  greater  necessity  for 
them — in  the  State  of  Maine,  or  either  of  the 
maritime  New  England  or  Middle  States,  on  either 
of  the  lower  border  lakes,  than  from  the  entrance 
of  the  Chesapeake  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  Your  ports  are  protected  with  fortifica- 
tions; your  harbors  improved  at  great  expense — 
rivers  opened,  roads  constructed,  lands  given  for 
the  purposes  of  internal  improvements  and  educa- 
cation — all  by  the  acquiescence  and  approbation  of 
the  South.  Your  fishermen  receive  bounties  and 
drawbacks  from  the  public  purses;  and  all  that 
liberality  can  conceive,  has  been  cheerfully  ac- 
corded. Of  this  we  have  not  yet  complained.  I 
would  not  have  mentioned  these  facts,  but  to  place 
in  bold  relief  the  contrast  of  the  southern  and 
northern  policy — the  just  liberality  of  the  South, 
and  the  wanton,  reckless  injustice  of  the  North. 

Not  content  with  all  these  advantages,  our  insti- 
tutions are  assailed  and  the  public  domain  monop- 
olized, our  safety  and  our  property  made  the  sub- 
jects of  fanatical  and  political  experiments.  Nor 
is  it  deemed  proper  that  we  should  be  informed  to 
what  extent  this  spirit  is  operative,  or  who  are  the 
persons  who  make  these  assaults.  If  disorganiz- 
ing and  offensive  resolutions  are  introduced  here, 
thrown  as  a  firebrand  into  this  House,  we  are 
required  to  pass  them  by  at  the  peril  of  being  held 
up  to  the  country  as  disturbers  of  the  peace.  Sir, 
when  such  incipient  steps  to  our  ruin  are  made  in 
this  House,  I  am  resolved  to  spare  no  effort  to 
show  the  people  who  are  the  friends  of  such  meas- 
ures. A  direct  vote  shall  be  taken  as  long  as  we 
can  find  those  who  will  aid  in  the  work.  Insin- 
cerity shall  not  find  a  dodging  place,  but  the  South 
shall  know  who  are  these  conservative  friends  of 
.whom  we  hear  so  much.  Their  names  shall  goto 
'posterity  upon  the  record.  They  shall  stand  up 
like  open  foes,  not  waylay  the  path  with  the  assas- 
sin's stiletto.  Are  gentlemen  desirous  to  avoid  the 
infamy  of  the  vote  on  the  one  hand,  and  yet  more 
afraid  not  to  vote  lest  their  constituents  should  be 
incensed  against  them.  Sir,  if  such  be  the  state 
of  public  opinion  among  their  constituents,  great, 
very  great,  is  the  danger  to  the  Union.  - 

The  South  has  lost  confidence  in  the  justice  of 


11 


many  of  the  non-slaveholding  States  as  members 
of  this  Confederacy.  The  loss  of  property  in  fugi- 
tive slaves  is  enormous,  the  boldness  of  northern 
kidnappers  has  increased  beyond  measure:  the 
whole  Atlantic  coast  is  exposed  to  northern  ship- 
ping, and  even  now  the  citizens  of  a  portion  of 
North  Carolina  are  holding  conventions  called 
together  to  arrest  this  evil.  A  recent  abduction  of 
slaves  by  a  Boston  ship  is  the  exciting  cause. 
Experience  has  taught  us  that  the  attempt  to  re- 
claim is  usually  abortive,  always  hazardous,  and 
sometimes  fatal  People,  laws,  and  courts  are 
arrayed  against  them,  and  the  power  of  the  mob 
in  advance  of  all  forbids  the  reclamation.  Sir,  this 
outrageous  disregard  of  the  bond  of  union,  has 
alienated  our  feelings,  and  destroyed  our  confi- 
dence. We  may  have  fewer  schools,  less  ostenta- 
tious churches— ^make  fewer  prayers  in  public,  and 
less  flourish  about  charity  and  benevolence:  but 
we  have  no  code  of  ethics  which  makes  either  of 
those  commodities,  or  all  of  them  together  a  set-off" 
for  the  recognition  of  crime  as  an  accomplishment, 
or  the  protection  of  felons  a  duty. 

Sir,  the  South  has  kept  faith  svith  the  North  in 
all  things  in  which  the  covenant  bound  them. 
They  would  gladly  see  a  return  on  the  part  of 
their  fellow-citizens  of  that  region  to  a  sense  of 
obligation  growing  out  of  the  constitution,  but 
they  are  well  nigh  hopeless,  and  for  this  reason  I 
repeat,  great  is  the  danger  to  the  Union.  There  is 
yet  another  ingredient  in  the  cup  of  bitterness 
prepared  for  us,  and  which  by  high  authority  we 
are  required  to  take  without  murmur.  I  allude  to 
the  policy  of  this  Administration  in  reference  to 
the  California  and  New  Mexico  Territories.  I  do 
not  now  propose  to  do  more  than  make  a  reference 
to  this  subject.  At  another  time,  when  the  Execu- 
tive communication  shall  have  been  printed,  and 
the  whole  matter  placed  before  us,  I  shall  express 
my  views  in  relation  thereto.  I  fully  concur  in 
the  conclusions  of  my  able  and  distinguished 
friend  from  Virginia,  [Mr.  Seddon]  and  take  this 
occasion  to  express  my  obligation  to  him  for  the 
strong  and  eloquent  developement  of  the  subject 
in  his  address  to  the  House.  But  I  do  deplore 
this  whole  transaction  by  the  distinguished  indi- 
vidual who  occupies  the  Executive  mansion.  I 
speak  of  his  connection  with  this  measure  with 
regret — not  with  bitterness.  I  perceived  months 
ago  that  measures  were  in  progress  to  exclude  the 
against  him,  in  the  first  exclamation  of  grief  and 
citizens  of  the  slaveholding  States  from  this  terri- 
tory. The  King  of  Israel,  when  Absalom  rose  up 
agitation, exclaimed:  ''  Surely  the  hand  of  Joab  is 
in  this  matter.'?  Sir,  I  felt  from  the  first  that  we 
had  nothing  to  hope  from  a  Prime  Minister — a 
Secretary  of  State — who  had  voted  in  the  Senate 
for  the  incorporation  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  into 
the  Mexican  treaty.  He  had  voted  to  bind  our 
Government  by  treaty  stipulations  with  Mexico, 
to  exclude  the  South  from  this  domain  acquired 
by  conquest  and  by  purchase.  Before  the  rains 
and  the  dews  had  washed  the  blood-drops  of  the 
fallen  soldiers  from  the  rocks  and  the  sands  to 
exclude  his  family  from  a  legacy  purchased  with 
his  life;  to  involve  our  country  in  an  agreement 
with  Mexico  that  the  territories  conquered  and 
paid  for  should  be  reserved  to  destroy  the  iufiu- 
ence,  to  break  down  the  power  of  the  southern 
States.  The  attempt  to  pass  the  Wilmot  proviso 
is  an  act  of  open,  stand-and-deliver  robbery.    The 


Wilmot  proviso  is  a  bold  cruiser,  with  a  flag  which 
denotes  the  true  character  of  the  ship.  The  Cali- 
fornia measure  and  the  policy  in  relation  to  New 
Mexico  and  Deseret,  is  a  piratical  craft  with  de- 
ceptive colors — both,  however,  destined  to  the 
same  port,  both  plundering  the  South.  This,  with 
great  dexterity,  inflicts  a  deeper,  because  a  reme- - 
diless  injury.  The  proviso,  applied  to  those  terri- 
tories, would  be  a  death-blow  to  southern  hopes, 
an  extinction  of  southern  influence.  This  arrange- 
ment is  severing  limb  by  lmb  from  the  living 
trunk;  protracting  suffering  aggravated  by  a  sense 
of  uneasy  imbecility.  Pilgrims,  strangers,  so- 
journers, and  foreigners  from  every  clime,  having 
falsely  assumed  to  be  a  people,  have  seized  upon 
the  public  domain,  appropriated  all  they  desired, 
if  not^by  the  advice,  by  the  connivance  of  the 
Government  here.  I  say  falsely  assumed  to  be  a 
people,  the  term  presupposes  the  existence  of  so- 
cial organization.  A  people  inhabiting  and  resi- 
ding in  a  territory  whose  right  to  form  a  govern- 
ment has  been  recognised  by  those  possessing  the 
sovereignty — and  who  consent  to  withdraw  their 
sovereignty  in  order  to  the  formation  of  a  State 
constitution  without  any  other  condition  than  that 
it  should  be  republican  in  its  provisions.  Not  a 
fortuitous,  accidental  accumulation  of  persons, 
without  fixed  domicil  or  interest  in  the  soil — tran- 
sitory and  unsettled.  Here,  sir,  is  danger  to  the 
Union.  In  every  usurpation,  every  violation  of 
the  Constitution,  there  is  danger — such  a  policy 
persevered  in  must  destroy  it.  , 

I  think  I  have  shown  the  danger  to  the  Union, 
and  whence  it  proceeds.  It  is  seen  and  felt,  for 
the  whole  South  is  now  moving  to  a  convention  of 
slaveholding  States,  to  be  held  at  Nashville  in  June 
next,  to  consider  how  to  save  the  Union,  but  at  all 
events  to  save  ourselves.  A  sense  of  injustice  has 
smitten  the  heart  of  the  whole  people,  and  the  bit- 
ter waters  of  strife  are  about  to  be  substituted  for 
refreshing  streams  of  patriotic  affection.  There  is 
imminent  danger  of  disunion;  nor  can  gentlemen 
avoid  the  evidence  of  that  fact  by  referring  to  our 
prosperity  as  a  people,  and  the  great  interest  which 
the  South  has  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
The  South  has  an  interest  in  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union.  It  is  the  continual  claim  which  is  made 
for  that  interest  which  is  denominated  agitation  by 
those  who  withhold  justice  from  us.  We  do  not 
desire  to  calculate  in  figures  the  value  of  the  bond, 
we  only  ask  for  its  conditions,  and  then,  in  weal 
or  woe,  prosperous  or  unfortunate,  clothed  with 
honors  or  sunk  into  poverty,  covered  with  glory 
or  trampled  in  the  dust  by  the  heel  of  conquering 
foes,  we  stand  by  you  and  with  you; 
"  For  our  fathers  were  like  brothers, 
In  the  brave  days  of  old." 

But  it  is  no  reply  to  our  just  complaints  to  say 
that  we^have  become  a  prosperous  and  a  great 
people  under  the  Union.  It  is  true  our  Constitu- 
tion would  make  any  people  great  if  its  principles 
are  regarded  in  the  administration  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Imperfectly  as  its  guarantees  have  been 
preserved,  the  elements  of  greatness  in  climate, 
in  soil,  and  natural  advantages,  with  the  energy 
and  enterprise  of  the  people,  have  produced  re- 
sults which  have  no  parallel  in  history.  This  is 
true;  but  it  is  also  true  that  our  progress  has  been 
greatly  impeded,  and  the  ends  for  which  the  Con- 
stitution was  adopted  have  been  much  obstructed 
by  a  disregard  of  the  wholesome  restraints  which 


12 


it  imposes.  We  have  been  prosperous  notwith- 
standing these  impediments,  and  made  rapid  ad- 
vances in  spile  of  these  drawbacks.  It  is  not, 
however,  an  evidence  of  prolonged  existence  in 
prospect,  that  external  indications  of  prosperity- 
are  exhibited  by  a  people.  The  very  means  em- 
ployed to  acquire  wealth  and  power,  often  contain 
the  elements  of  destruction.  The  policy  which 
accumulates  the  one  and  concentrates  the  other, 
may  be  fatal  to  the  continuance  of  the  system. 
This  is  strikingly  true  in  reference  to  our  Confed- 
eracy. We  are  compelled  to  own  the  agency  of 
our  State  sovereignties  in  holding  together  and 
sustaining  our  institutions.  Their  salutary  check 
has  given  all  the  stability  which  belongs  to  our 
Government,  and  has  delayed  the  disruption  which 
unconstitutional  legislation  must  finally  produce. 
The  concurrent  majorities  of  two  Houses,  repre- 
senting different  constituencies,  have  in  some  meas- 
ure restrained  the  desolating  impulse  of  mere  nu- 
merical majorities  upon  the  machinery  of  our 
Federal  Government.  Circumstances  already  re- 
ferred to,  have  however  arisen,  which  have  im- 
paired the  force  of  this  restraint,  and  we  look  with 
apprehension  to  the  future.  All  tends  to  the  vor- 
tex of  merely  numerical  majorities.  Other  causes 
are  also  active  to  produce  similar  results,  and  in 
proportion  as  they  are  efficient,  the  stability  of  our 
institutions  is  endangered.  Our  apparent  pros- 
perity as  a  people  affords  no  ground  to  calculate 
on  the  protracted  continuance  of  the  Government. 
The  tree  cloihed  with  verdue  and  flourishing  with 
apparent  vigor,  falls  before  a  blast  which  seemed 
not  to  have  power  to  overthrow  it.  But  a  heart- 
decay  unsuspected  by  a  casual  observer  is  revealed 
by  its  prostration.  Organic  disease  both  in  men 
and  Governments  does  often  exist  without  indica- 
tions of  the  fatal  termination  which  must  and  will 
come.  In  our  Government,  sir,  I  fear  the  disease 
is  organic.  This  age  of  progress  seems  to  be  litlh 
else  than  progress  in  evil,  so  far  as  the  cause  of 
human  rights  is  concerned.  The  great  error  of 
the  day,  one  most  serious  in  its  consequences  is 
assuming  that  it  is  the  office  of  Government  to 
change  social  relations.  Nothing  is  more  mis- 
chievously false.  The  only  legitimate  end  of  po- 
litical organization  is  to  preserve  not  to  change  or 
create  those  relations — to  preserve  not  to  create 
property.  All  valuable  alterations  suelTas  do  not 
disturb  the  harmony  of  society,  are  the  result  of 
time  operating  on  relations  already  existing;  sug- 
gested by  necessity  and  adopted  gradually.  Sir, 
whilst  there  is  nothing  that  we  should  value  more 
than  a  good  government,  there  is  nothing  which 
deserves  a  lower  estimate  than  a  bad  one.  And 
the  best  form  of  government  may  be  made  the 
worst  by  abusing its  powers  and  perverting  its  ob- 
jects. A  good  government  properly  administered 
will  transform  the  mostunpromising  mate^ls  into 
a  virtuous  community,  whilst  one  that  is  corrupt 
and  vicious  will  debauch  public  sentiment  and 
bring  ruin  on  its  institutions.  Nothing  is  so  pow- 
erful in  its  influence  on  society,  because  nothing  is 
so  universally  present  in  all  its  relations.  The 
rights  of  persons  and  of  property  are  subjected  to 
the  unintermitted  action  of  its  authority,  and  it 
colors  and  controls  all  the  currents  of  social  feel- 
ing. It  is  a  power  to  restrain  vice  and  punish 
crime,  or  to  foster  corruption  and  discountenance 
virtue;  a  refreshing  fountain  to  enliven  and  purify 
all  the  channels  of  human  intercourse,  or  a  pol- 


luting stream  sending  forth  bitter  waters  to  poison 
and  to  destroy.  Patriotism,  with  all  its  elevated 
purposes,  sustains  and  defends  a  good  Government, 
whilst  rapacity  and  corruption  are  brought  into 
requisition  to  give  energy  and  effect  to  a  bad  one. 
Hence  the  high  duty  to  maintain  a  Constitution, 
which,  having  the  principles  of  justice  for  its  found- 
ation, gives  security,  tranquillity,  and  repose;  all 
good  men  desire  it,  and  none  but  wicked  men  per- 
vert its  powers  to  evil  ends.  He  is  a  patriotic 
statesman  who  adheres  to  the  Constitution  and  its 
benevolent  purposes,  whilst  he  is  guilty  of  scarcely 
less  than  treachery,  who  defeats  those  designs.  The 
best  government,  ignorantly  or  corruptly  adminis- 
tered, becomes  the  worst:  good  citizens  regard 
the  fundamental  laws  with  veneration,  whilst  those 
who  administer  them  make  their  loyalty  to  that 
law  the  instrument  of  oppression.  It  is  for  this 
reason,  sir,  that  party  organization  exerts  such 
influence,  and  is  so  often  invoked  to  quiet  the  de- 
stractions  of  public  feeling.  Claiming  to  control 
the  minds  as  well  as  the  actions  of  men,  and  settle 
authoritatively  the  opinions  of  the  masses,  we  are 
not  surprised  that  we  are  admonished  of  the  high 
necessity  of  preserving  the  organization  of  national 
parties, — of  adhering  to  that  organization  as  a 
means  of  preserving  the  Union.  Sir,  in  order  to 
the  formation  of  any  party  upon  an  honest  basis, 
the  members  of  that  party  must  have  many  opin> 
ions  in  common,  and  direct  their  action  by  those 
opinions.  Any  other  state  of  things  precludes  the 
idea  of  an  honest  organization,  and  fixes  the  fact 
that  its  only  object  is  the  division  of  the  spoils  after 
a  party  victory.  Such  party  obligations  may  exist 
with  reference  to  this  object,  and  at  the  same  time 
another  common  purpose  and  sympathy  may 
unite  a  large  portion  of  each  party  in  effecting  most 
important  results. 

There  are  such  things  as  open  questions,  inde- 
pendent of  old  party  issues.  This  is  true  at  the 
present  moment.  A  large  majority — nearly  all  of 
both  Whigs  and  Democrats  in  the  non-slavehold- 
ing  States  in  this  House  and  elsewhere — concur  in 
the  policy  of  restricting  the  institution  of  slavery 
to  its  present  territorial  limits,  and  whenever  the 
Wilmot  proviso,  or  an  equivalent  measure,  or 
even  an  abolition  movement  is  made,  are  found 
voting  for  such  a  line  of  policy.  This  open'ques- 
tion  amongst  them  closes  the  door  against  the 
South,  and  our  party  divisions  but  increase  our 
inability  to  defend  ourselves  against  a  majority 
here.  It  increases  their  power  and  reduces  ours. 
There  are  gentlemen'  on  this  floor  claiming  to  be 
thorough  and  excellent  Democrats,  who  adopt  the 
proviso  as  to  the  Territories,  admit  the  power  of 
Congress  over  slavery  in  this  District  and  wherever 
it  hasexclusive  legislation,  and  vote  for  the  exercise 
of  that  power  when  occasion  requires,  who  have 
made  no  effort  to  reform  State  legislation  on  the 
subject  of  fugitive  slaves,  who  believe  in  the  consti- 
tutionality of  internal  improvements  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  advocate  specific  duties,  in  a 
tariff  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  protection,  and 
yet  say  they  are  good  and  true  Democrats. 

Now  the  Democratic  party,  where  I  have  known 
its  creed,  repudiate  these  doctrines;  and  I  find  myself 
here  agreeing  with  the  gentlemen  referred  to  only 
on  the  Sub-treasury,  anil  a  suitable  disregard  for 
the  ashes  and  memory  of  a  defunct  United  Slates 
Bank.  With  such  elements  as  these  to  constitute 
a  party,  we  are  gravely  told  that  such  an  organiza- 


13 


tion  ought  to  be  preserved  as  one  of  the  most  ap- 
proved methods  of  saving  the  Union.     This  open  ( 
question concerningslaveryunitesNorthern  Whigs  j 
and   Democrats  against  the   South,  and  produces  j 
the   very   measures  which   the  whole  South,  by 
governors,  conventions,  and    legislatures,  declare  j 
must  cause  a  dissolution  of  the  tie  which  binds  the 
States  together:  and  yet  fealty  to  party  authority  ; 
demands  our  allegiance  to  consummate  degradation  j 
and  enforce  submission.     To  advise  such  a  con- 
centration of  party  power  must,  if  from  Northern 
sources,  be  arrogance  of  supposed  conquest  over  us 
— if  from  Southern   men,  or  a  Southern  press,  it 
means  nothing  less  than  submission  to  dishonora- 
ble inequality,  and  the  Union  it  preserves  owes  its 
existence  to  the  calmness  of  despair.     To  inculcate 
reverence  for  such  an  Union,  to  make  pledges  to 
advocate  "  it  under  all  circumstances,  regarding 
its  dissolution  as  the  greatest  of  all  possible  evils 
that  can  befall  the  country,"  if  coming  from  those 
who  make  it  the  instrument  of  our  oppression,  is 
insolence.;  if  from  a  Southern   man  or  a  Southern 
press,  is    treason    to  their   section, — dark,  deadly 
treason. 

Sir,  1  own  no  party  affiliations  with  those  who 
vote  for  a  policy  which  is  forever  to  fix  upon  me 
and  mine  a  condition  of  political  inequality.       1 
recognize  no  party  ties  nniting  me  to  those  whose 
system  of  aggression  has  for  its  result  the  equali- 
zation of  the  black  and  white  races — which  looks 
even  remotely  to  the  possession  of  civil  or  social 
equality   of    those   races   at   the   South    at   least 
(amongst  themselves  it   may  be  a  matter  of  taste 
with  which   it  does  not  become   us   to  interfere.) 
Neither   will  I   acknowledge  party  allegiance   to 
those  who  vote  for  or  approve  the  VVilmot  proviso, 
or  any  equivalent  measure,  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  this  District  or  elsewhere  by  Congress,  or  the 
obstruction  of  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves  by 
State  authority.     My  constituents  have  declared 
disunion  preferable  to  any  of  these  results,  and  so 
instructed  me  at  the  polls.     It  was  the  issue  upon 
which  I  was  elected;  and  I  frankly  asked  all  who 
had  not  made  up  their  minds  to  approve  of  that 
conclusion  not  to  vote  for  me.     I  cannot,  then,  by 
the  recognition   of  any  party  arrangement,  give 
strength  to  such  as  pursue  those  objects  with  un- 
remitting zeal.     I   claim  no  party  affiliation  with 
the  advocates  of  those  measures,  however  strongly 
party  lines  may  be  drawn.     To  do  so  is  to  betray 
my  trust,  to  dishonor  my  constituents,  to  acknowl- 
edge the  plunder  and  monopoly  of  our  territory 
a  just  distribution,  kidnapping  and  the  abduction 
of  our  slaves  a  virtue,  and    perjury  against   the 
Constitution    in    protecting   runaway    slaves    by 
statute,  an  accomplishment  to  be  admired.     It  is 
an  insult  to  ask  a  southern  man  to  own  party  ob- 
ligations which  promote  the  ruin  of  the  South.     I 
hail  every  man,  whether  Whig  or  Democrat,  from 
the  North  or  from   the  South,  who,  standing  by 
the  guarantees  of  the  Constitution,  preserves  the 
rights   of   the   South    on    this    absorbing    ques- 
tion  as    belonging   to    the   party  organization   to 
which   I   acknowledge   fealty  and  allegiance.      I 
pledge  myself  to  cooperate  with   such,  and  such 
alone,  as  thus  resolve.     Neither  will  I  be  diverted 
from  my  purpose  by  questions  raised  concerning 
the  spoils  of  victory  or  the  emoluments  of  office, 
the  exercise  of  power  either  in  appointments  or 
removals,  sympathy  with  foreign  and  suffering  pat- 
riots and  reprobation  of  foreign  despotism,  or  any 


minor  questions  which  do  and  have  divided  states- 
men in  their  opinions.  As  well  might  we  pause 
when  the  envenomed  serpent  in  his  coil  is  about  to 
strike  a  fatal  blow,  to  kill  the  insect  which  could 
only  rob  me  of  a  drop  of  blood.  No,  sir,  I  stand  by 
those  of  all  parties  who  stand  by  the  Constitution. 
I  recognise  no  political  association  with  those  who 
violate  and  pervert  it.  We  will  know  no  political 
friends  but  those  who  abide  by  its  provisions,  and 
regard  all  as  political  enemies  who  deny  us  its  pro- 
tection. I  cannot  recognize  a  political  association 
with  those, whose  policy  is  directed  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  eighteen  hundred  millions  of  dollars'  worth 
of  property — the  value  of  our  southern  slaves. 
Ours  by  the  Constitution,  ours  by  rights,  ours  in  a 
great  measure  by  purchase  from  those  who  now 
threaten  to  destroy  it.  Whatever  may  be  the  con- 
sequence of  resistance,  it  is  a  struggle  for  our  pro- 
perty., our  homes,  our  firesides,  and  our  posterity, 
and  our  position  as  men,  our  equality  in  this  re- 
public. 

In  showing,  sir,  the  danger  to  the  Union,  I 
think  I  have  designated  the  disunionists.  Not 
southern  men,  who' are  determined  to  save  their 
homes  and  their  property,  and  their  superiority  to 
a  free  race,  to  demand  and  to  have  his  chartered 
rights,  but  the  invader  of  his  rights,  the  destroyer 
of  his  repose.  Doubtless  the  emperors  of  Prussia 
and  of  Austria  do  thus  excuse  all  these  cruelties  by- 
denouncing  the  patriotism  of  the  Hungarians  treas- 
on, and  the  demand  of  their  rights  the  suggestion 
of  hot-headed  ultra-politicians.  I  say  in  all  candor 
and  with  all  courtesy  to  the  Abolitionists,  you  are 
disunionists,  for  you  are  continually  endeavoring 
to  destroy  the  value  of  property,  to  secure  which 
was  the  chief  object  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  I  say  to  the  Free  Soilers  of  every  shade  of 
opinion  and  of  every  political  party,  you  are  dis- 
unionists,  for  you  assert  a  claim  to  the  whole 
public  domain  for  yourselves,  irrespective  of  the 
rights  of  a  large  portion  of  your  follow-citizens, 
equally  entitled  to  its  occupation  under  the  Consti- 
tution. I  say  to  all  who  either  here  or  elsewhere 
approve  of,  or  encourage  legislative  or  other  action 
to  prevent  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves — or  who 
here  deny  the  legislation  necessary  to  make  that 
article  in  the  Constitution  which  requires  their  de- 
livery operative  and  efficient.  You — you  are  dis- 
unionists, for  you  pull  out  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Union,  as  one  of  your  judges  most  tru!y  and 
solemnly  declared — it  is  the  assailant  and  not  the 
man  who  resists  assault  who  breaks  the  peace.  It 
is  the  wrong-doer,  and  not  he  who  only  contends 
lawfully  for  his  rights,  that  is  responsible  for  the 
violence  of  the  struggle. 

What  then,  sir,  must  be  the  end  of  this  state  of 
things  ?  What  can  save  the  country  from  discord 
and  the  Federal  Government  from  overthrow? 
What,  igtfhe  language  ofpoliticians,  will  satisfy  the 
South  ?™l'he  time  was,  sir,  when  all  that  was 
demanded  was  forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  non- 
slaveholdirg  States  as  our  equals  in  the  Confeder- 
acy. We  simply  asked,  let  us  and  our  institutions 
alone.  But  that  time  has  past.  Mississippi  has 
cast  her  banner  to  the  breeze,  and  all  the  southern 
States  will  wheel  into  line  with  this  gallant  young 
sovereignty.  In  convention  they  will  speak  one 
voice,  but  in  tones  which  will  remove  the  incre- 
dulity of  those  who  suppose  that  we  are  not  in 
earnest.  In  the  bold,  manly,  and  truthful  mani- 
festos of  those  States  I  see  the  resolve  that  all  this 


14 


difficulty  must  be  settled  now  and  forever.  All 
causes  of  alienation  must  be  removed.  The  policy 
which  under  any  form  of  Federal  legislation  or 
Executive  intervention  seizes  for  the  non-slave- 
holding  States  the  public  domain,  must  be  given 
up;  the  South  will  never  be  satisfied  with  an  aban- 
donmentofthe  name  whilstthe  reality  of  the  wrong 
is  still  enforced — to  be  cheated  and  then  laughed 
at — ruined  by  indirection  and  consoled  that  the 
proviso  was  not  passed  in  name  but  forever  fixed 
u-pon  them  in  effect.  Abolition  in  this  District,  the 
dock-yards,  forts  and  arsenals  must  be  no  longer 
urged,  and  State  laws  preventing  or  impeding  the 
capture  and  recovery  of  fugitives  from  labor  must 
be  repealed.  If  the  will  of  your  constituents,  the 
state  of  public  opinion  at  home,  your  own  con- 
sciences, or  a  sense  of  duty  require  you  to  refuse 
these  acts  of  justice,  the  evil  is  incurable.  Sepa-- 
ration  will  become  inevitable.  Our  wrongs  are 
insupportable  and  can  be  tolerated  no  longer.  But 
remember,  we  cannot  be  turned  aside  from  a  de- 
mand for  redress  by  the  cry  of  disunion;  should  it 
really  ensue,  on  your  heads  be  the  guilt,  for  we 
strove  to  avert  the  calamity.  "  Equality  or  Inde- 
pendence," is  our  motto  and  our  watchword.  This 
we  demand  and  this  we  will  have.  Political  em- 
pirics endeavor  to  paliate  without  removing  the 
disease  in  vain.  Party  ties  are  a  rope  of  sand 
when  not  strengthened  by  a  common  interest  and 
the  sanctions  of  justice.  They  fall  asunder  at  the 
first  touch  without  these  elements  of  cohesion. 
Hosannas  to  the  Union  afford  no  remedy,  they  only 
awaken  the  recollection  of  what  that  Union  was 
in  the  better  days  of  our  early  glory — 
"  When  none  were  for  a  party, 

When  all  were  for  the  State; 

The  lauds  were  fairly  portioned, 

The  spoils  were  fairly  sold, 

Before  we  warih'd  in  faction 

Or  in  virtue  had  grown  cold." 

That  Union,  once  our  idol,  is  now  a  sword  to 
assault,  not  a  shield  to  protect  us.  The  distribu- 
tion of  Washington's  Farewell  Address  will  give 
no  relief  from  the  pressure  of  wrongs  inflicted  and 
rights  withheld.  He  was  in  life  our  own,  and 
Washington,  a  slaveholder  and  a  friend  of  our  in- 
stitutions, "  dwelt  amongst  his  people,"  and  died 
surrounded  by  his  domestics.  His  memory  is 
too  dear  to  the  South  for  her  to  bring  on  it  re- 
proach; his  example  proclaimed  to  the  world  that 
wrong  and  oppression  are  not  the  less  galling  be- 
cause enforced  by  authority.  He  once  owed  his 
allegiance  to  his  king,  held  a  commission  in  his 
name,  and  fought  battles  to  extend  his  empire. 
When  that  king  wronged  his  section  of  the 
royal  dominions,  he  led  victorious  armies  against 
him,  and  dissolved  the  union  between  the  crown 
and  the  colonies.  Resistance  to  wrong  has  not 
sent  him  to  posterity  as  a  disunionisf  or  a,  traitor, 
but  as  a  patriot  and  a  statesman. ^--^W^reeply  re- 
sent the  abuse  of  his  great  name  to  sanction  such 
an  unmanly  course  as  submission  to  wanton  usuf 
pation.  The  perversion  of  his  sentiments  to  give 
respectability  to  such  a  policy  is  the  deepest  con- 
spiracy against  his  fame  and  his  glory.  Com- 
promises such  as  are  offered  can  never  restore 
confidence.  The  South  knows  that  every  previous 
compromise  has  been  but  an  anti-slavery  victory. 
Kept  by  them  in  good  faith,  and  violated  by  the 
North.  Made  for  no  consideration  but  the  hope 
of  peace,  but  in  the  event  deepening  the  sense  of 
injury  by  a  disregard  of  the  conditions  on  which 


they  were  adopted.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  are 
urged  to  further  concessions,  to  adjust  this  diffi- 
culty, to  quiet  the  agitation.  We  had  no  part  in 
creating  the  trouble,  and  are  unjustly  called  on  to 
make  sacrifices  to  allay  it.  We  cannot  offer  addi- 
tional inducements  to  rapacity  by  rewarding  its 
clamors  in  hope  of  satisfying  its  cravings.  The 
compromise  recently  offered  by  the  venerable 
and  distinguished  Senator  from  Kentucky  is  but 
another  gilded  pill  containing  the  deadly  poison. 
Saying  to  the  generous  South,  Give,  give. 

He  had  long  before  the  introduction  of  his 
resolutions  of  compromise  left  the  South,  without 
doubt,  as  to  his  views  of  their  rights  in  the  territory 
acquired  from  Mexico.  In  a  letter  addressed  to 
the  free-soil  convention  at  Cleveland  in  June  last, 
he  fully  disclosed  his  opposition  to  the  introduc- 
tion cf  slaves  into  that  territory,  either  by  private 
enterprise  or  the  authority  of  Congress.  Thus 
giving  the  weight  of  his  name  and  influence  to 
close  forever  all  that  rich  domain  against  his 
fellow-citizens  of  the  South.  His  resolutions 
ostensibly  for  compromise  demand  a  gratuitous 
concession  altogether  by  the  South  of  all,  all,  once 
more.  Once  before,  the  South  gave  up  all  that  was 
asked,  and  now  with  a  scheme  of  pacification  pre- 
sented by  a  statesman  who  identifies  himself  with 
the  proviso  party  in  fact  if  not  in  name,  we  are 
again  required  to  give  up  all  that  is  demanded  for 
an  empty  declaration  about  the  District  and  fugi- 
tive slaves,  and  the  migration  of  slaves  from  State 
to  State — rights  already  secured  by  the'  Consti- 
tution but  ruthlessly  invaded.  We  must  give  up 
the  territory  for  the  consideration  of  the  North  in 
acknowledging  rights  which  are  plainly  guaranteed 
by  the  bond  of  Union. 

Sir,  none  of  these  expedients  will  answer — the 
South  must  and  will  have  her  rights  without  dimi- 
nution. She  can  protect  herself  having  all  the 
elements  of  prosperity;  eight  millions  of  people 
have  nothing  to  fear.  No  power  on  earth  can 
conquer  us,  none  dare  invade  us.  Climate,  soil, 
and  position  make  us  independent,  and  we  will  be 
independent  or  equals  in  the  Confederacy.  We 
demand  our  rights,  and  our  whole  rights  under 
the  Constitution;  we  will  have  nothing  less.  As 
a  people  none  under  Heaven  have  more  to  expect 
or  less  to  fear. 

At  one  time  in  the  history  of  the  Republic,  the 
Gauls  pushed  their  conquests  to  the  gates  of  Rome. 
Time  after  time  they  were  bought  off  by  the  pub- 
lic treasures.  Those  bribes  expended,  induced  a 
return  to  renew  their  demand.  On  the  last  occa- 
sion the  impoverished  Commonwealth  again  com- 
pounded for  their  deliverance — frequent  exactions, 
however,  had  brought  them  to  an  exhausted  treas- 
ury. To  obtain  safely  they  surrendered  even  reli- 
gious scruples  to.preserve  the  city  from  the  horrors 
of  being  sacked  and  plundered,  and  their  houses 
and  their  families  from  the  brutality  of  a  barbarous 
soldiery — the  treasures  of  the  temple  were  brought 
forth  by  the  priests.  The  sacred  scales  told  the 
balance  to  be  exact:  and  the  demand  of  the  fierce 
Gaul  was  justly  paid.  But  arrogant  in  his  power, 
he  threw  in  his  sword,  and  demanded  that  gold 
should  be  heaped  up  and  the  balance  restored. 
This  last  outrage  roused  the  young  husbandman 
Camellus,  who,  drawing  his  sword,  declared  that 
in  better  times  the  Romans  redeemed  their  country 
with  steel  and  not  with  gold.  He  rallied  his  coun- 
trymen and  expelled  the  invader.    Learn,  sir,  the 


15 


moral.  Let  the  people  of  the  non-slaveholding 
States  learn  the  moral.  I  conjure  those  who  in- 
vade our  rights,  by  all  the  ties  which  bind  a  kin- 
dred people  together,  to  do  justice.  Throw  not 
the  weight  of  political  inequality,  the  desire  of 
degradation  in  the  scale.  Presume  not  on  any 
sentiment  or  loyalty  to  the  Union  which  will  cause 
us  to  eive  up  the  rights  of  our  children.  Drive 
not  an'exasperated  .people  to  extremities.  It  you 
dp  on  your  heads  be  the  guilt.  I  have  warned 
you. 

APPENDIX. 

Ashland,  Ju7ie  16,  18-19. 
Gentlemen:  [  received  your  official  letter,  in  behalf  of 
the  freemen  of  the  Reserve,  inviting  me  to  unite  with  liiem, 
at  Cleveland,  in  celebrating  the  anniversary  of  the  passage 
of  the  ordinance  of  17S7,  on  the  13th  of  July  next.  I  con- 
cur entirely  in  opinion  as  to  the  wisdom  of  that  great  meas- 
ure, and  lam  glad  that  it  has  secured  to  the  States,  on  which 
it  operates,  an  exemption  from  the  evils  of  slavery.  But  the 
event  ol  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  has  never,  within  my 
knowledge,  been  celebrated  in  any  one  of  the  sixty-one 
years  which  have  since  intervened.  It  is  proposed  for  the 
first  time  to  commemorate  it.  It  is  impossible  to  disguise 
the  conviction  that  this  purpose  originates  out  of  the  ques- 
tion now  unfortunately  agitating  the  whole  Union,  of  the 
introduction  of  slavery  into  New  Mexico  and  California. 
Whilst  no  one  can  be  more  opposed  than  I  am  to  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  into  those  new  Territories,  either  by  the  au- 
thority of  Congress,  or  by  individual  enterprise,  I  should  be 
unwilling  to  do  anything  to  increase  the  prevaijing  excite- 
ment. I  hope  that  the  question  will  be  met  in  a  spirit  of 
calmness  and  candor,  and  finally  settled  in  a  manner  to  add 
strength  and  stability,  instead  of  bringing  any  danger,  to  the 
existence  of  the  Union.  In  all  our  differences  of  opinion, 
we  should  never  cease  to  remember  that  we  are  fellow-citi- 
zens of  one  common  and  glorious  country,  nor  to  exercise 
mutual  and  friendly  forbearance. 

But.  gentlemen,  waiving  all  other  considerations,  indis- 
pensable engagements  will  prevent  my  attendance  on  the 
occasion  to  which  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to  invite  me. 
With  great  respect,  I  am 

Your  friend  and  obedient  servant, 
H.CLAY. 


Hampton,  March  17,  1849. 
Gentlemen:  1  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  re- 
ceipt oi'your  letter  of  the  14th  instant,  apprising  me  that  a 
Convention  of  Delegates  representing  the  Free  Democracy 
of  the  third  Congressional  District,  assembled  at  Norwich 
on  the  J 3th  instant,  had  designated  me  as  their  candidate 
for  th*  office  of  Representative  in  the  next  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  and  enclosing  a  copy  of  the  resolutions 
adopted  by  that  Convention.  '  These  resolutions  I  have  read 
and  carefully  considered. 


The  principles  which  they^declare,  and  Ve  spirit  pe_ 
vading  them,  have  my  entire  and  hearty  approbation.  They 
are  in  every  sense  of  the  word  democratic  and  true.  And  I 
rejoice  to  believe  that  they  meet  a  warm  response  from  the 
honest  hearts  of  the  Democracy  or  Connecticut.  Enter- 
taining these  views,  I  accept  the  nomination  which  the 
friends  of  Free-soil  in  this  Congressional  District  have  so 
generously  tendered  me. 

I  have  long  felt  it  to  be  the  du'y  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  relieve  itself,  as  well  as  the  free  States,  of  the 
odium  of  upholding  and  sustaining  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  all  other  places. where 
that  Government  is  responsible  for  its  existence  and  has  ju- 
risdiction over  the  subject.  That  Government  has  been  too 
long  the  friend  of  the  slaveholder  and  the  enemy  of  the' 
slave.  It  has  too  long  allowed  the  territory  under  its  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  to  be  oire  of  the  principal  markets  for 
the  purchase  and  sale  of  human  beings.  It  is:no\v  lull  time 
that  the  reproach  thus  brought  upon  the  whole  country 
should  be  wiped  away.  This  cannot  be  done,  excepting  by 
the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade  at  the  seat  of 
Government,  and  wherevei  else  Congress  has  the  power  to 
abolish  them.  . 

With  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States,  where  it 
now  exists,  Congress  cannot  constitutionally  or  rightfully 
interfere.     Those  Stales  alone  are  responsible  for  the  ex- 
istence of  that  institution  within  their  borders,  so  long  as 
I  the  people  of  the  free  States  do  nothing  to  sustain  it.     Our 
I  duty  to  the  slave  States  will  be  fully  performed  by  abstain- 
I  ing  from  all  legislative  action  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
within  their  limits.     But  Congress  has  the  power  to 'pre- 
vent the  extension  of  slavery  beyond  the  limits  in  which  it 
now  exists,  and  should,  under  no  circumstances,  refuse  or 
omit  to  exercise  that  power. 

I  am  happy  to  know  that  these  sentiments  pervade  the 
i  masses  of  the  Democracy  of  the  North  and  the  great  West,  and 
!  that  through  its  vital  principle  of  progression,  and  its  thorough 
:  identification  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the  Democratic  party, 
|  in  those  vast  sections  of  country,  is  fast  unshackling  itself f:om 
I  all  connection  with  slavery,  ani  becoming  truly  free.  [A  por- 
;  tionofthe  letter  referring  to  cheap  pos.age,  &c,  is  here  omit- 
1  ted] 

!      My  position  as  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  Conven- 
!  ton,   holden  at  Norwich  on  the  15th  ultimo,   for  the  same 
|  office  for  which  your  Convention  seKcted  me,  led  me  to  a 
very  careful  examination  of  the  resolutions  which  you  for- 
wirded  to  me,  and  upon  which  I  have  here   briefly  ex- 
•  pressed  invopinions;  awl  I  was  happy  to  find  that  the  principles 
'<  embodied  in  those  resolutions  were  so  truly  democratic  that  I 
could  accept  your  nomination  without  forfeiting  the  gener- 
ous confidence  of  friewls  who  have  hitherto  stood  by  and  sus- 
tained me,  and  for  whose  partiality  and  kindness  I  cannevei 
be  too  grateful. 

For  the  nomination  so  generously  tendered  me  by  the 
friends  of  Free  Soil  in  this  Congressional  District,  and  foi 
the  flattering  manner  in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to 
communicate  it,  I  beg  to  expiess  my  grateful  acknowl- 
cd'ments,  and  am,  with  great  respect,  your  friend  and 
servant;  C  F.  CLEVELAND. 

Messrs.  E.Perkins  and  PrescottMay,  Secretaries,  $c 


Printed  at  the  Congressional  Globe  Office. 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y, 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032722812 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


